With Huawei and ZTE living under a cloud of uncertainty or outright bans in Ericsson’s key regions – Europe and North America – and Nokia going through a turbulent time, Ericsson’s CEO Börje Ekholm might be forgiven for sounding rather smug as he boasted of his firm’s 5G leadership in the newly published annual report. After all, three years ago, when he took the helm, Ericsson was going through its own problems, amid speculation that it would have to seek an acquirer or become less reliant on the hoped-for 5G boom in spending. That boom has only materialized to a certain extent. In terms of deployments, 5G is expanding more quickly than was forecast a few years ago, but most…