Ericsson helps to bring telecommunications to consumers that previously could not afford service or lived outside the coverage area, deploying rural networks and boosting capacity in many high-growth markets.

The Company implement 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.

Our fixed and mobile broadband solutions dramatically improve network speed and capacity. Network evolutions are enhancing quality of service and enabling operators to launch new data services for their subscribers.

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) 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.

By providing operators with innovative offerings and reducing their cost of operations, we support our operators in evolving their businesses. Our service professionals in more than 140 countries provide local competence and global expertise in consulting, network rollout, systems integration, managed services, education and support.

We continued to win contracts for network operations and hosting services. Ericsson is a clear leader in Managed Services and at year end 2008, Ericsson-managed network operations served approximately 250 (185) million users.

More than 1,000 systems integration projects were carried out during the year. We increasingly take on a prime integrator role in complex deployment and transformation projects when operators converge their networks and evolve towards IP.

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 IPT V 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.

With the introduction of broadband access, subscribers can enjoy a wide variety of multimedia applications. To accommodate this traffic, however, many operators will have to overhaul their core networks as well. Ericsson takes  the lead in supporting operators to prepare their networks for an all-I P environment by deploying softswitch, IMS, and optical and microwave transport solutions.

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 midterm, i.e. five-year horizon, as well as a longer term, i.e. 10–15 year view.