Ericsson Q1 net dips 30%; sees strong sales in India

Swedish telecom equipment supplier Ericsson has reported a 30 per cent decline in profit for the first quarter of 2009 even as the company saw strong sales in India.

The company's profits stood at 1.8 billion Swedish kronor (about $223 million) for the first three months of this year, plunging 30 per cent as against the year-ago period.

In the comparable period, the same stood at 2.6 billion Swedish kronor, it said in a statement.

However, first-quarter sales climbed 12 per cent to 49.6 billion Swedish kronor. In the same period a year ago, sales was at 44.2 billion Swedish kronor.

"Networks sales increased by 12 per cent year-over-year, positively impacted by a weaker SEK. Sales, excluding network rollout, were up with especially strong performance in China, India and the US," the statement noted.

The firm noted that Asia-Pacific sales shot up by 26 per cent year-over-year. "The mobile broadband rollout in China is the largest ever in the world and is being done in record time. Deliveries are high also to India, Indonesia and Vietnam," it added.

According to Ericsson, the global economic turmoil so far has had only a limited impact on the mobile network market.