Ericsson addresses opportunities and challenges at Strategy & Technology Summit

Ericsson addresses opportunities and challenges at Strategy & Technology Summit Ericsson today held its second Strategy and Technology Summit of the year during which Ericsson's management discussed the latest market trends and provided an update on the state of the mobile telecommunications marketplace. During the London event, President and CEO Kurt Hellström discussed his continued long-term positive outlook for Ericsson while reiterating the challenges that persist for the short term. Management reconfirmed that it continues to expect to grow its core mobile systems business at least in pace with the market. Kurt Hellström expects the mobile systems market to show flat to moderate growth for the year, although it is becoming more uncertain as the economic slowdown has intensified in Latin America. Meanwhile, strong growth continues in China and Japan. Management extended its flat to moderate growth expectation in the mobile systems market to 2002 as well. "The market may look tough right now and that is why we have taken necessary actions to return to profitability - even in these difficult times." "When it comes to the fundamental drivers for our industry, we see no reason to change our positive view for the longer term," said Kurt Hellström. "The number of mobile subscribers continues to grow with 50 to 60 million new subscribers every quarter. GPRS is starting now. The technology is in place, the networks are stable and handsets are in the market. My firm belief is that GPRS will accelerate over the rest of this year and next year and that we are on track for volume deployment of 3G in 2003," concluded Kurt Hellström. Ericsson is shaping the future of Mobile and Broadband Internet communications through its continuous technology leadership. Providing innovative solutions in more than 140 countries, Ericsson is helping to create the most powerful communication companies in the world. Read more at http://www.ericsson.com/press FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Mads Madsen, Director Media Relations Mobile: +46 70 666 2903 E-mail: mads.madsen@lme.ericsson.se Åse Lindskog, Director Media Relations Mobile: +46 730 244 872 E-mail: ase.lindskog@lme.ericsson.se Lotta Wiklund, Manager Investor Relations Mobile: +44 7887 628707; E-mail: lotta.wiklund@clo.ericsson.se