Ericsson is the world’s principal supplier of mobile networks. About 50 percent of the operators with commercial mobile broadband networks have chosen Ericsson as their vendor. The introduction of mobile broadband in the networks has substantially enhanced the end-user experience, which explains the current massive uptake of mobile broadband services around the world. What previously took minutes to accomplish, e.g. downloading a song, now takes a few seconds.

However, the majority of today's mobile users are still served by GSM and every month another 30 to 40 million people join the GSM community. Ericsson is one of the few vendors continuing to develop new technology for GSM, providing innovative and cost-efficient solutions that address the low-income segments in a viable and sustainable way.

Fortunately, Ericsson GSM and WCDMA/HSPA (3G) networks share a common core network, indicating that previous investments are protected as operators shift from voice- to multimedia centric networks. Ericsson is now driving the standardization of the next evolution step – Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Multimedia Telephony (MMTel) which will further enhance the consumer communication and entertainment experience.

Besides mobile networks, Ericsson also targets the fixed broadband market. The acquisitions of Marconi, Redback Networks and Entrisphere strengthened our offering in access, transport and Internet Protocol (IP) networks. The expansion of our fixed broadband offering has been vital when supporting our customers’ new multimedia services (such as IPTV-distribution) and it reinforces our ability to address network operators as they begin the journey towards a truly converged network.

Ericsson’s industry-leading network solutions include radio access network, (radio base stations for GSM, WCDMA, HSPA, LTE) core network solutions, (like softswitch, IP infrastructure, IMS, media gateways), transport solutions (like microwave radio and optical fiber solutions) and fixed access solutions for copper and fibre. All solutions provide cost-effective management of voice and data traffic and contribute to further drive down operators’ costs in both fixed and mobile networks.

Networks account for about two-thirds of Ericsson’s net sales.

Our services portfolio includes network rollout and professional services, such as managed services, consulting and education, systems integration and customer support. We are the industry leader in managed services, managing networks that serve more than 120 million subscribers. In addition, as a leading provider of hosting solutions, we enable operators to launch multimedia services simply, quickly and cost-effectively.

By outsourcing certain activities to Ericsson, operators can focus on their core business of attracting, serving and retaining customers. We realized the strategic importance of services early on, and by the end of the 1990s we were the first vendor to form a services business unit. Today, our services organization leads the industry, with 24,000 professionals in 140 countries. We use our experience, skills and scale to support customers in expanding their businesses.

Operators can minimize risk by engaging Ericsson to integrate equipment from multiple vendors and handle technology-change programs, as well as to design and integrate new solutions.

Sales of professional services represent more than 22 percent of net sales and are reported separately.

The multimedia organization was established January 1, 2007, and business development is well under way. It includes service layer products, revenue management systems, enterprise solutions and mobile platforms. The recently acquired companies TANDBERG Television, Mobeon and Drutt Corporation have reinforced our multimedia product portfolio.
 
Sales of multimedia represent about 8 percent of net sales. As a fairly new business activity, growth and margins may fluctuate over the coming quarters.

Sony Ericsson delivers leading-edge mobile phones and other mobile communication devices. The 50/50 joint venture combines the mobile communications expertise of Ericsson with the consumer electronics and content expertise of SONY Corporation, and forms an essential part of our end-to-end capability for mobile multimedia services.

Sales for Sony Ericsson are not included in our reported sales while its operating results are reported according to the equity method under "Share in earnings of joint ventures and associated companies" in the income statement.