Ericsson says Phl still an important market

MANILA, Philippines - Stockholm-based Ericsson believes the Philippines remains an important market in the Asia Pacific region and is not threatened by the influx of several competitors from China.

Ericsson president and chief executive officer Hans Vestberg said in an interview with reporters that the Philippines has been a very important market for the company for more than 100 years owing to the country’s strong market for mobile phones.

“The Philippines, for many years as I can remember, has been an extremely important market for us. We come, we stay and we are prepared to stay for 100 years more. It is an important and a very innovative market,” Vestberg stressed.

He pointed out that the Philippines has been in the forefront in the use of mobile phones as shown by the subscriber base of providers led by Smart Communications Inc. of dominant carrier Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and Ayala-controlled Globe Telecom Inc.

“You have been in the forefront from using your mobile technology so it is important to work with operators here,” he said.

Ericsson Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (LME) has helped shape the Philippine telecommunications landscape since 1988 through Ericsson Telecommunications Inc. It currently employs 700 workers in the country.

In the Philippines, Ericsson’s earliest projects were for the supply, design and implementation of Smart’s TACS network, Smart’s LEC network and Sun Cellular’s LEC network. It was also a major partner for PLDT’s Zero Backlog Program. In 1999, Ericsson won the Globe GSM Network expansion projects for Visayas and Mindanao.

Ericsson is still at the forefront in providing the latest telecommunication solutions to its customers in the country. The more recent projects of Ericsson include the GSM-BSS expansion project of Sun Cellular in the Visayas and Mindanao islands as well as the supply of GSM equipment for Globe’s rural expansion project.

Vestberg said Ericsson is focused on keeping its worldwide leadership in all its business segments including networks, services, business support systems, and multimedia.

“Ericsson is into four or five different businesses and we are number one in all businesses that we are into. Our job is to keep our number one position and that is the most important than speculate who it is and who will be our main competition will not help us. We just need to execute in an extremely good way,” he added.

He pointed out that networks account for about 55 percent of Ericsson’s net sales while services account for 40 percent. Solutions for operations and business support systems corner the balance.

Mats Olsson, senior vice president for Asia-Pacific of Ericsson, said the Swedish owned firm placed more emphasis in the region that includes the Philippines through the appointment of a corporate officer.