Ericsson CEO says IMS is the next step following the successful rollout of 3G

14 February 2006

At the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Ericsson(NASDAQ: ERICY) President and CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg today gave hisviews on the evolution of the telecommunications industry. "Most 3Gnetworks will be upgraded with HSDPA in 2006, and 3G is now a massmarket in steady growth. IMS and all-IP is the next step to fullyleverage the opportunities with mobile broadband. IMS will play anequally important role for the creation of multimedia services asHSDPA plays for the speed in the network."

"WCDMA now serves 50 million subscribers, and that number is growingsteadily. It is the obvious choice for 3G," said Svanberg.

He underlined that HSDPA marks a significant milestone in theindustry.

"If GSM was the beginning of a mass market for mobile telephony,HSDPA marks the beginning of a mass market for high-speed mobilebroadband."

Ericsson has a clear lead in this field - most HSDPA networks rolledout today are powered by Ericsson.

Svanberg said the evolution towards all-IP is the next technologystep in the telecom world.

"While HSDPA takes the access network to a new level, IMS andeventually all-IP will take the core network to a new level. Theimportance of IMS will become even more evident during 2006, when weare accelerating the rollout of services beyond voice and we start toreally tap the potential of HSDPA."

Svanberg also addressed the WCDMA Long Term Evolution towards "Super3G."

"HSDPA is cutting edge and already has global presence and thenecessary economies of scale. And it offers a future-proof evolutionpath - the standardization of 'Super-3G' is already ongoing."

A new channel for distributing content is created, as mobilebroadband capabilities are made possible by the telecommunicationsindustry. Mobile TV is already available in more than 40 networksaround the world. Another obvious area is, of course, thedistribution of music.

"Mobile broadband opens up plenty of business opportunities andattracts new entrants to our industry. A new telecom ecosystem isemerging, and partnerships will be crucial going forward. Theoperators will play a key role materializing the opportunities withmobile broadband."

"Ericsson is in a unique position to make this telecom ecosystem workand make our customers even more successful."

Svanberg also addressed the importance of technology leadership: "Ourtechnology leadership gives our customers a first-mover advantage,which is fundamental in this highly dynamic industry."

The right technology also has a huge potential for increasingefficiency. Svanberg explained how Ericsson's cutting-edge offeringmakes this possible.

"With our mobile softswitch solution, operators can evolve smoothlytowards IMS and all-IP, while cutting operating expenses for the corenetwork by with 50 percent - actually cutting them in half."

"And with our new generation base stations operators need 30 percentfewer sites, compared to traditional base stations. The operatorsgrow capacity and bandwidth and minimize the total cost of ownershipat the same time."

Transmission is another area in which Ericsson anticipates a greaterdemand. As operators are rolling out mobile broadband and fixedbroadband, the need for transmission capacity is increasing.

"With our strong transmission offering, further strengthened by ouracquisition of Marconi, we help operators remove transmissionbottlenecks," Svanberg said.

Also during 3GSM World Congress, Kurt Jofs, executive vice presidentBusiness Unit Access, spoke about Ericsson's HSDPA leadership and thenext-generation radio access technology.

Hans Vestberg, executive vice president Business Unit Global Servicesspoke about Ericsson's leading role as a Managed Services partner andprime integrator.

Ericsson is shaping the future of Mobile and Broadband Internetcommunications through its continuous technology leadership.Providing innovative solutions in more than 140 countries, Ericssonis helping to create the most powerful communication companies in theworld.

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Ericsson CEO says IMS is the next step following the successful rollout of 3G

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