Ericsson’s joint venture with STMicro, which saw its modem chip business placed into ST-Ericsson, may have been a disaster, but modems remain important to the Swedish giant. There was speculation, when the JV was dissolved, that the firm would give up on this activity, but it brought modems back inhouse, and recently appointed a new head for the unit. Developing advanced modems is important to Ericsson to keep it at the cutting edge of the most fundamental technology in its wireless world. Some of its R&D feeds into its infrastructure and some into its own chips and modules for devices. The latter are not a major revenue generator by Ericsson standards, but ‘ as Qualcomm well knows ‘ modems are…