Sweden’s Ericsson has put down a marker for one of Portugal’s largest pending public technology programmes. “We would love to take part, but it hasn’t been designed yet,” Juan Olivera, Ericsson’s chief executive for Portugal and Spain, told journalists in Lisbon on Wednesday, 28 October, ECO reported. He was speaking about the future of SIRESP, the state’s emergency and security radio network used by police, firefighters and other emergency services, and about the plan to move it from today’s TETRA technology to the 4G and 5G standards used by commercial mobile operators.

“Not aggressive enough”

Olivera’s main message was about speed. “If we follow the plan as it stands, we will be behind the rest of Europe,” he said, according to Tek Notícias. He called TETRA “old technology” in which “it makes no sense to keep investing”, and said all public-safety networks will move to the global 3GPP standard and to 4G and 5G: “There is no doubt that will happen. The question is when.” Other European countries, he said, already have defined plans, test laboratories and deployment projects under way. “The plan is not aggressive enough. It should be much more aggressive, because the technology is already proven.”

He accepted that the switch cannot be immediate, given how critical the network is for security forces and emergency services. “There will have to be a transition period during which the two systems coexist, until it is possible to switch off the old system. But for that to happen, having a plan is not enough: you have to move forward,” he said. He also acknowledged that it is not yet clear when or how the transition will happen, and that Ericsson would not be the only interested supplier.

What Portugal has planned

The review of SIRESP began after the Iberian blackout of 28 April 2025, when the government said the network had shown “structural and operational limitations” under high demand. In May 2026 a working group presented 33 recommendations to the Ministry of Internal Administration, Tek Notícias recalls. They include a gradual move to a hybrid critical-communications system that runs the existing TETRA network alongside 3GPP (4G/5G) broadband for a transition period, a new public body to manage the state’s critical communications independently of the current SIRESP operator, and an initial investment of about €36 million. TETRA would not be switched off before 2038, with the final date left to a political decision.

The working group explicitly named Finland and Sweden, alongside France, Spain and the United Kingdom, as countries following a similar hybrid approach. Both Nordic countries are well ahead: Finland’s state-owned Erillisverkot is moving its VIRVE authority network to broadband over a commercial operator’s infrastructure, and Sweden is working on the next generation of its Rakel network. That gives the two Nordic network vendors, Ericsson and Finland’s Nokia, reference projects close to home for exactly the model Portugal says it wants.

Ericsson’s position in Portugal

Ericsson’s Portuguese subsidiary, Ericsson Telecomunicações, is based at Taguspark in Oeiras and is one of the two main radio-network suppliers to Portugal’s mobile operators, alongside Nokia, which this month launched a joint innovation programme with MEO. Olivera also used the briefing to push for faster 5G standalone roll-out and for approval of the EU’s Digital Networks Act, and said neither Europe nor Portugal is ready to talk about 6G until advanced 5G is deployed at scale. This week PortugalThe day before, Portugal’s telecoms association APRITEL was arguingrsquo;s telecoms association APRITEL has also been arguing with DIGI over the renewal of mobile spectrum, a reminder that the country’s network decisions are bunched together over the next two years.

Why it matters for the corridor

A national critical-communications network is a multi-year, multi-supplier contract of the kind Nordic vendors know well, and Portugal’s plan borrows directly from Nordic practice. For Ericsson, saying publicly that it wants in, before any tender exists, is a way to shape the timetable. For Portuguese integrators, radio installers and software companies, the transition is the opening: hybrid public-safety networks are built by consortia, and the vendors will need local partners for sites, integration, devices and control-room software. Portuguese firms that work on Finnish or Swedish public-safety projects would arrive with references the Portuguese buyer has already said it admires.

What to watch

The next steps are the government’s decision on the working group’s recommendations, the creation of the new public entity and the first procurement for the broadband layer. Nordic companies already active in Portugal are listed in the directory of Nordic companies in Portugal; Portuguese technology firms selling into the region are in the directory of Portuguese companies in the Nordics. Live Nordic public contracts open to Portuguese bidders are on the tenders page.

Sources: ECO, “Ericsson ‘adoraria participar’ no futuro da rede Siresp” (28 October 2026); Tek Notícias, “Plano para o SIRESP ‘não é suficientemente agressivo’” (28 October 2026); Jornal de Negócios, “Ericsson interessada em ‘ser um dos fornecedores do SIRESP’” (28 October 2026). Quotes translated from Portuguese.