BLESSING MAKUMBE
TELECOMS AND EDGE COMPUTING
BLESSING MAKUMBE
TITLE: VICE PRESIDENT AND HEAD OF CLOUD SOFTWARE & SERVICES FOR THE UK AND IRELAND
COMPANY: ERICSSON
Blessing Makumbe, Ericsson’ s VP for the UK and Ireland, reveals how 5G, AI and cloud-native tech are transforming connectivity, from critical infrastructure and public safety to everyday applications.
Unpacking the 5G landscape When asked about mobile speed disparities in the UK, Blessing points to density versus rollout strategy as a key factor.“ When operators deploy radio technology, performance depends on how many users are in that area,” he explains.“ If too many people connect at once, the resources are divided and performance suffers.” Strategic deployment decisions play a role.“ Some areas have excellent capacity, while others face gaps because of how rollout priorities are set,” Blessing adds.
He stresses the significance of 5G standalone( SA) and mid-band spectrum as viable solutions:“ Mid-band delivers both coverage and penetration. It’ s ideal for dense urban areas. Most performance challenges originate in the radio access network, not the core or transport layers. Once radio capacity is optimised, through technologies like massive MIMO, we can scale the core network accordingly.”
“Without cloudnative, we would still be stuck in a one-sizefits-all world”
BLESSING MAKUMBE VICE PRESIDENT AND HEAD OF CLOUD SOFTWARE & SERVICES FOR THE UK AND IRELAND, ERICSSON
52 August 2025