Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elmatador who wrote (51658)	7/21/2004 12:33:28 PM
From: brian h	Respond to of 74559

Hope you do not miss that pretty 3G train. It is rolling ahead pretty quickly. Thanks to John C. from Qualcomm thread. ericsson ceo comments CEO COMMENTS "Confidence has returned to the industry. 3G rollouts, GSM capacity expansions as well as EDGE upgrades creates momentum for us," says Carl-Henric Svanberg, president and CEO of Ericsson. "With new and expansion contracts across all regions we are capitalizing on our technology leadership, our large installed base as well as our particularly strong position in high growth markets. Our competitive services offering is gaining operator recognition with eight new contracts for managed services and hosting. We show healthy development in all technologies. Our organization's commitment to drive operational excellence creates strong results. Higher than anticipated sales drove an encouraging bottom line performance and it is our continued ambition to deliver best in class margins. We have now reached a point where targeted investments in R&D and customer support should further strengthen our leading position and ability to drive profitable growth. The pace of 3G network rollout is accelerated by the growing number of handsets available. Experience from the introductory phase of WCDMA/CDMA2000 puts richer consumer offerings and enhanced system capacity in focus. We will leverage our 3G leadership by the introduction of Ericsson WCDMA Evolved, with HSDPA capabilities. This is a logical evolutionary step that will offer true mobile broadband with speeds of up to 14 Mbit/s. It is clear that consumers want to use the same services irrespective of whether they are accessing them from a fixed or mobile network. Our end-to-end solutions, based on converged services and networks, support our customers in meeting these consumer demands. Our long experience in wireline, our leading wireless technology and our IP knowledge, are essential components in driving the convergence necessary to achieve ease-of-use and reachability for private as well as professional users. We will reinforce our position as the leading infrastructure provider in the telecom industry through understanding of consumer needs, continued R&D leadership, operational excellence and by being the most innovative and responsive partner to our customers," concludes Carl-Henric Svanberg. MARKET VIEW Drivers for growth in both developed markets and in high growth markets continue to be positive. The traffic is steadily increasing as a result of new and richer services being offered and more competitive tariff schemes besides the continuously growing number of subscribers. Operators are increasing their focus on business development and activities aimed at growing revenues. In developed markets, which are primarily capacity driven, continued 3G deployments, upgrades of GSM networks and rapid build-out of broadband access are driving the development. In addition there is a clear trend toward wireless/wireline convergence based on all-IP technologies. This will create efficiency gains, but equally important enable the new seamless services demanded by consumers. In high growth markets we see continued strong development both in subscriber additions and in usage. Investments in low cost coverage in these markets continue to be a strong driver. The cost efficient Ericsson Expander solution has been positively received and opens new business opportunities primarily in developing areas with a number of contracts signed in several countries around the world. In these markets there is also an often underestimated number of advanced users demanding services equivalent to those in developed markets. In Europe commercial launches of 3G is ongoing. By year-end WCDMA will be commercially launched across all of Western Europe. In addition, most operators in Europe are in the process of deploying EDGE. Though average minutes of use are substantially below the rest of the world, more attractive tariff schemes and an increasing number of new services should stimulate traffic growth. The North American market shows healthy development. Along with convergence, operators in North America early on recognized the need to meet consumer demands for seamless services and the benefits of 3G technology. The consolidation among operators continues. The Cingular/AWS merger will create a strong player, however, the regulatory process is creating a normal temporary slow down in the AWS' investments. The subscriber growth in the Asia Pacific region continues, led by China and India, where India is on track to become the world's second largest market in number of mobile subscriptions. In parallel with the ongoing 3G license discussions in China, demand for coverage and capacity expansions in 2G and 2.5G networks remains strong. 3G is being rolled out in a number of markets in South East Asia along with continued demand for 2G and 2.5G. Ten new WCDMA networks were commercially launched during the quarter, reaching a total of 37. During the quarter the number of WCDMA subscriptions grew from 4.4 million to almost 7 million. The number of CDMA2000 1X subscriptions has now reached more than 100 million. Worldwide subscription penetration is 24% with a total of 1.5 billion subscriptions, of which close to 1.1 billion is in GSM. The global number of subscriptions has been estimated to pass two billion early 2007 with most of the increase coming from high growth markets. Worldwide subscription penetration in 2007 is estimated to reach 30%. OUTLOOK The traffic growth in the world's mobile networks should generate a slight to moderate growth in the global mobile systems market. In addition to this underlying growth there is an effect from operators catching up on previous years' limited investments. This effect continues but should abate over time. All estimates refer to 2004 compared to 2003 and are measured in USD. In the first quarter report 2004 we stated "we estimate that the global mobile systems market in 2004, measured in USD, will show slight to moderate growth, compared to 2003. There is also an element of operators catching up on previous years' limited investments." We maintain our view that the addressable market for professional services, also measured in USD, is expected to continue to show good growth. With our technology leadership and global presence we are well positioned to take advantage of these market opportunities.