Wireless infrastructure players seem to have settled into buoyant times as quarterly profits follow quarterly profits.
“Confidence has returned to the industry,” said Carl-Henric Svanberg, president and chief executive officer of L.M. Ericsson, which reported quarterly profits, as did its competitor Lucent Technologies Inc.
In its second-quarter earnings results, Ericsson soared to a net profit of $704 million and a pre-tax profit of $1.5 billion, trouncing market estimates. This contrasts with the year-ago period when it suffered a loss of $359 million.
The company’s orders rose to $4.4 billion as against $3.76 billion in the year-ago period, while it enjoyed net sales of $4.33 billion, an 18-percent jump over the same period last year.
The figures indicate the company enjoyed a sequential gross margin rise to 47.8 percent, which Ericsson attributed to its operational efficiency, higher volumes and a favorable product mix.
“With new and expansion contracts across all regions, we are capitalizing on our technology leadership, our large installed base as well as our particularly strong position in high-growth markets,” said Svanberg. He said the company savored contracts from the major markets in the world, including Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.
The company said its mobile network orders increased 27 percent over the same period last year, but noted that W-CDMA equipment and associated network rollout services share stood at 12 percent and radio-access sales were 30 percent for both W-CDMA and EDGE equipment.
Lucent Technologies Inc. had a net income of $387 million, or 8 cents per share in contrast to the previous period when it had a net income of $68 million, or 2 cents per share. In the same time last year, it had a net loss of $254 million, or 7 cents per share.
Its revenues were flat sequentially at $2.19 billion, although they were an 11-percent jump over a year ago with $1.96 billion.
“We continued our profitable momentum this quarter and saw some positive signs in the key areas we have identified for growth,” said Lucent Chairman and CEO Patricia Russo. She added that the company announced 35 customer wins and trials, covering 20 countries around the world.
“We are seeing more progress in areas like VoIP, mobile high-speed data and broadband access, while tapping into new international markets,” she said.
