Ericsson’s gross margin and the amount of capital tied up by projects vary with project type. Typically, there are two types of projects: coverage and capacity/expansions. These are to a high degree related to the mobile networks’ technology cycles, which are long, normally 10 to 20 years. Coverage projects are frequent in the initial phases of a technology cycle whereas capacity/expansion projects typically occur towards the later stages of a cycle.

The initial phase of a technology cycle includes a higher degree of coverage buildouts and more rollout services. In many parts of the world, such as in Europe where networks are now being modernized, the projects are often of a turnkey character and civil works are sometimes part of the commitment. There is more hardware involved resulting in lower gross margin and a larger tie-up of capital in equipment.

When coverage has been built and traffic in the network increases, the operator moves into the capacity/expansion phase. In this phase, capacity is increased, either by expanding a radio base station with software upgrades to higher speeds or by adding more sites. In capacity/expansion projects, the Company sells a larger share of software and integration services, which yields higher gross margins, and ties up less capital.

Ericsson is now in a phase when there is more hardware in the business mix. This is due to the technology cycle where WCDMA/HSPA, i.e. mobile broadband, is being rolled out. To a high degree, operators now deploy the new multi-standard radio base station RBS 6000. This means that a limited amount of hardware installations will be needed when operators upgrade to LTE in the future.