CEO to shareholders: 50 billion connections 2020

• Growth opportunities in industry with mobile broadband
• Envisions 50 billion connections 2020

Ericsson's (NASDAQ:ERIC) President and CEO Hans Vestberg met the shareholders in his new position for the first time at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders in Stockholm. In his presentation, Vestberg gave an overview of 2009 and also acknowledged his predecessor Carl-Henric Svanberg.

Vestberg talked about growth opportunities in the industry and repeated the company's vision of 50 billion connections by 2020. "Today we already see laptops and advanced handsets connected, but in the future everything that will be benefit from being connected will be connected", Vestberg said.

As an example of connected devices, Vestberg was joined on stage by Peter Håkansson, research engineer, who showed real life mobile health applications. Håkansson showed how heart monitoring can be done remotely over the mobile networks and explained the benefits for both patients and society.

Another growth opportunity Vestberg highlighted is the media industry. In 2009, Ericsson signed an agreement with TV4 Group to operate it nationwide playout service. Jan Scherman, CEO of the TV4 Group, joined Vestberg over video link from the TV4 offices. Scherman explained the rational for the deal and how TV4 can focus on content while their technical solutions are outsourced to Ericsson.

Vestberg also stressed the importance to further develop Ericsson's technology leadership. With 18,300 R&D engineers, Ericsson recently achieved a number of industry firsts, such as live demo 4G/LTE of 1 gigabit per second, fastest microwave backhaul with 2,5 gigabit, demo of 84 Mbps HSPA.

Vestberg concluded by acknowledging the work done and high motivation by Ericsson's 82,500 employees around the world. "We have an incredible strong team at Ericsson and together we will work hard to extend our leadership in the industry."

Notes to editors:

Ericsson is the world's leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. Ericsson is the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies, and provides support for networks with over 2 billion subscribers and has the leading position in managed services. The company's portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry. The Sony Ericsson and ST-Ericsson joint ventures provide consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices. 

Ericsson is advancing its vision of being the "prime driver in an all-communicating world" through innovation, technology, and sustainable business solutions. Working in 175 countries, more than 80,000 employees generated revenue of SEK 206.5 billion (USD 27.1 billion) in 2009. Founded in 1876 with the headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, Ericsson is listed on OMX NASDAQ, Stockholm and NASDAQ New York.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT

Ericsson Corporate Public & Media Relations
Phone: +46 10 719 69 92
E-mail: media.relations@ericsson.com

Ericsson Investor Relations
Phone: +46 10 719 00 00
E-mail: investor.relations@ericsson.com

UPCOMING EVENTS

Ericsson's Capital Markets Day, Stockholm, Sweden, May 5-6
Ericsson Business Innovation Forum, Shanghai, China, May 17-18