Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung report sluggish profits; signs of hope for India in 5G era
New Delhi: Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung, which hit record lows for the first time in the 5G era, each said in their earnings conferences that their overall outlook for 2023 was due to macroeconomic challenges, a shrinking mobile network infrastructure market, and lower carrier spending. announced a significant decrease in sales.
There was a bright spot for India as its overall numbers increased due to an unprecedented rapid rollout.
However, a slowdown was seen in the fourth quarter of 2023, as Indian carriers plan to normalize investment in 2024 after 2023, when capital investment was concentrated, according to market information firm Counterpoint Research. has reported.
For 2023, Ericsson generated revenues of approximately $24.8 billion, while its Finnish peer Nokia generated revenues of $24.1 billion. Samsung’s network division had sales of $2.9 billion. Profit margins continued to decline due to changes in business mix.
“Ericsson maintained its leadership in 5G standalone deployments. Meanwhile, Cloud and Network Services business revenues were down year-on-year as growth was partially offset by lower managed services revenues due to descoping and contract terminations. There was no change,” the report states.
Net sales for Nokia’s cloud and network services business were flat for the year, but operating income and margins improved due to digital asset sales and hedging. Nokia ranks second after Ericsson in the number of 5G standalone core deployments.
In 2023, revenue from enterprise customers increased approximately 15% to $2.46 billion, with the addition of 151 new customers. The private network momentum continues, with Nokia supporting over 710 private wireless clients.
Samsung reported sales of $2.9 billion in 2023, down from $4.2 billion the previous year. Although Samsung is also experiencing similar results to its Nordic peers, the report states that in 2024 he remains optimistic about concluding significant deals on vRAN and Open RAN networks.
There was also a big year end event for the industry, with Ericsson signing a $14 billion deal with AT&T to become its Open RAN compliant equipment provider, effectively reducing Nokia’s market share in the NAM region.
According to the report, “Suppliers believe capacity requirements, new use cases, increased data traffic, and increased integration of mid-band radios will drive demand and stabilize market spending, but timelines remain “It remains unclear.”
Another key aspect that has been identified as critical to effectively monetizing 5G networks is the ability to provide premium access while improving the user experience.
“However, these are actionable items for the future that will yield results in the long term. Short-term gains will come from efficient cost reductions and associated automation,” the report states. .
