CANNES, France-L.M. Ericsson Chief Executive Officer Kurt Hellstrom reiterated his previous predictions for short-term uncertainty in the mobile market at a press conference here Wednesday, while taking operators to task for over-emphasizing capital expenditure cuts to the detriment of service quality.
“It’s a pity there is not more aggressiveness in the market,” said Hellstrom, who will leave his Ericsson post in April.
The company cited its successes in the wideband CDMA arena, saying it has shipped 10,000 third-generation base stations to date and has maintained its No. 1 position in W-CDMA and GPRS contract wins. However, the Swedish vendor said operators need to address the strain on current networks due to higher traffic volumes and decreasing capex.
Hakan Eriksson, the company’s vice president of research, said the typical 10-percent blocking rate that “used to be acceptable” in big cities during peak hours has increased to 15 to 20 percent, and that decreasing service quality will negatively affect the industry as a whole.
The company also renewed its strategy to focus more on its software and services sales, which is currently 30 percent of its business, with that percentage expected to increase. Ericsson said it has between eight and 10 licensees for its handset platform, and considers such licensing initiatives as “a growing business for Ericsson.”
Ericsson also rejected speculation that it may be exiting the CDMA market and called its CDMA business a key, core area for the company.
