INTERVIEW: Infrastructure deals with leading US operators have propelled Samsung Electronics into the big league of the networks market, but the head of its North America division explained the company is not an overnight success.

Regional president and CEO Tim Baxter (pictured) told Mobile World Live the company is now reaping the benefit of development conducted over the past five or six years, with its position as a provider of chips, devices, customer premise equipment and networking equipment another key element enabling it to compete with vendors including Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei.

The payoff is happening in the form of deals with AT&T, Verizon and Sprint “that are all about implementing 5G today, not five years from now”. While the absence of Huawei in the US market offers something of an advantage, Baxter explained there are commonalities in other international markets around spectrum which leave it well placed to capitalise on its experience in the country.

Samsung considers how to “orient use cases around” specific deployments, for example in a neighbourhood or nationally, with a view to transforming industries including autonomous vehicles; fleet management; healthcare; and education, he said.

Baxter also discussed how Samsung is employing its Bixby voice assistant to become a contender in the IoT, using its recently acquired SmartThings platform, “the single-largest open platform of IoT-enabled products”, to integrate its own devices with those from other vendors to “create new experiences for consumers”.

Access the full interview here.