Ericsson Increases Market Share, Makes Product Announcements during Mobile World Congress

Ericsson (News - Alert) has announced new products and agreements during the Mobile World Congress 2012 now taking place in Barcelona, Spain.

Ericsson also reported during the Mobile World Congress that its market share for mobile equipment increased from 32 percent to 38 percent during last year based on early internal data. Even though operator spending slowed during the 4Q, the company’s line of RBS6000 base stations and other products led to the increase in the market share for Ericsson.

"The combination of leadership in mobile broadband, managed services and support solutions (OSS/BSS) gives us an unrivalled ability to support our customers in successfully monetizing the opportunities in a Networked Society," Ericsson President and CEO Hans Vestberg added in a company statement.

Looking ahead, Vestberg says that fundamentals for “longer term positive development remain solid” in the sector.

“Short term, we expect operators to continue to be cautious with spending, reflecting factors such as macro-economic and political uncertainty,” Vestberg adds. “We will continue to execute on our strategy which means that the business mix, with more coverage and network modernization projects than capacity projects, will prevail short term."

Also Vestberg recently announced that MTN (News - Alert) will use the Ericsson Converged Wallet platform for MTN’s customers in Africa and the Middle East. Another deal was announced with Western Union. "Together, Ericsson and Western Union (News - Alert) can bring turn-key mobile money services to more places in the world than ever before – unlocking the power of financial services for millions of people worldwide," Diane Scott, executive vice president, chief marketing officer and president, Western Union Ventures, said in the statement.

When it comes to 4G, Ericsson has gotten new agreements with e-access in Japan, Open Mobile (News - Alert) in Latin America, and Augere in India.  "The two fastest-growing 4G markets in the world are North America and Korea, where Ericsson is supporting rollout of 4G quickly,” Vestberg adds. “This gives us unparalleled insight and experience of the high-traffic demands in 4G.”

Ericsson also announced that during 2011, the company achieved 13 IT managed services contracts. Also, Ericsson will acquire BelAir Networks, which provides carrier-grade Wi-Fi. Also, Ericsson announced a new application on the Smart Services Router. It will be used on Telstra's (News - Alert) network in Australia.

"We are building networks that will be used for things we cannot predict,” Vestberg said in the statement. “However, 130 years of experience tells us that network performance is a dealmaker. Our new contracts and product launches prove that we are keeping that top of mind. Services and technology leadership is key to us and we now hold 30,000 patents.”

Ericsson is meeting with customers in Hall 6 at the Mobile World Congress. During the trade show, the company demonstrated a product under development using microwave technology, the MINI-LINK ball-shaped microwave antenna.

Over 40 percent of mobile traffic worldwide uses Ericsson networks. The company operates in 180 nations. In 2011, it had $35 billion in revenues.

For more news from the Mobile World Congress, from TMCnet, please click here.