Ericsson sales fall 10pc in Middle East and Africa

Fall in sales down to lower 5G investments and uncertain economic conditions

Ericsson’s sales in the Middle East and Africa region dropped 10 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter due to lower 5G investments in the former and uncertain economic conditions in the latter.

These conditions, which affected sales in networks and digital services, are “likely to prevail for some time”, said Ericsson in its second-quarter financial report to the end of June.

The vendor, however, reported growth in group sales by eight per cent despite a sales decline in mainland China of SEK2.5 billion (£200 million).

Ericsson was only allowed a two per cent market share in China in a recent mobile spectrum award in retaliation for Sweden excluding Chinese 5G vendors.

In May, Ericsson ended its patent wars with Samsung through a multi-year agreement on global patent licences between the two companies, including patents relating to all cellular technologies and sales of network infrastructure and handsets.

Ericsson and Samsung have also agreed on technology cooperation projects to advance the mobile industry in open standardisation.