This chapter is covered by the Auditors' Report.
Business Focus 2008
Reaching more people
Ericsson helped to bring telecommunications to many consumers that previously could not afford service or lived outside the coverage area. The Company implemented alternative energy solutions for radio base stations in remote areas. Ericsson radio technology requires fewer cell sites for high-quality coverage. In these ways, Ericsson uses technology to reduce network operators’ total cost of ownership, which enables them to expand coverage and reach more consumers in new geographic areas.
SUBSCRIPTION PENETRATION PER REGION (PERCENT)
Increasing speed and capacity
Ericsson is at the forefront of broadband technology development with solutions to meet the growing broadband traffic demand from business and residential customers. During the year, the Company introduced a 100 GbE (Gigabit Ethernet) (gigabit Ethernet) transport enhancement to existing WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexing) solutions and deployed a nationwide optical WDM network in Germany, that enables 40 Gbps (gigabit per second) connections. The first commercial 21 Mbps (Megabit per second) mobile broadband services were launched and the Company demonstrated the world’s first end-to-end HSPA solution with speeds of up to 42 Mbps. The world’s first commercially available LTE-capable mobile platform was introduced, with peak data rates of up to 100 Mbps in the downlink and up to 50 Mbps in the uplink. With four times the bandwidth of existing systems, the world’s first 10 Gbps Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON) system for IPTV was demonstrated.
Expanding Ericsson’s role
Ericsson is to supply, build, integrate, operate and manage broadband communications infrastructure for Saudi Arabia’s high-tech flagship, King Abdullah Economic City. The sole-supplier agreement with Emaar, developer of the smart-city project, breaks new ground in Saudi Arabia as Ericsson’s first GPON-enabled IPTV contract; the first contract where Ericsson provides systems integration and network rollout services for fiber optic solutions and fixed-network IMS. The contract brings together products from Ericsson’s major acquisitions – Entrisphere, Marconi, Redback and Tandberg Television – and the Company’s telecom services portfolio.
Preparing for the future
Each year, Ericsson’s ConsumerLab conducts more than 40,000 interviews, representing opinions and behavior of over 1 billion people. This valuable insight on consumer trends is incorporated into product development, sales and marketing, and is provided to operators for them to better understand their customers’ needs. The Company also works with entrepreneurial developers to bring new multimedia services to the mobile environment. Internally, the Ericsson strategy function is working with scenarios for market and technology developments with a mid- term, i.e. five-year horizon, as well as a longer term, i.e. 10–15 year view.
