Today, worldwide mobile subscription penetration is only 21 percent with a total of 1.34 billion subscriptions. Predictions show growth of another billion mobile users within the 2008 timeframe. Eighty percent of this will be in emerging markets.

"We believe that our solutions for emerging markets could increase this growth rate. Communication is a basic human need - we bring solutions that make it possible for people in areas previously not served, to communicate with the rest of the world," says Carl-Henric Svanberg, President and CEO of Ericsson.

For operators, continued subscriber growth in lower spending segments represents an untapped market with significant growth potential that can be made profitable. With the Ericsson Expander solutions, low consumer spending is not a barrier to operators' profitability.

"In addition, today's new users are tomorrow's advanced users," says Carl-Henric Svanberg, stressing the strategic value to operators in capturing this market early.

The Ericsson Expander solutions are offerings of selected products and services that provide low total cost of ownership, high quality performance and scalable coverage and capacity.

The best way to bring cost down is to reduce the number of radio sites, and the Ericsson Expander solutions specifically address this by focusing on the total performance of the overall radio network.

Ericsson believes that a solution to minimize the number of sites will result in far better savings than going for a cheap radio base station solution. Ericsson can claim significantly fewer radio sites needed than competitors due to high quality radio performance and unique capabilities that can be used for extensive radio coverage. Ericsson also provides the ability to add capacity in existing radio cabinets which enables smooth and cost-effective expansions when traffic needs increase.

Ericsson Expander offerings include solutions for the radio and core networks, transmission, service and connectivity layers, as well as network management systems. Tailored business and technology consultant services are also available in order to develop business cases and design networks with optimal quality and performance.

The first phase of the launch introduces new unique radio features to meet all coverage and capacity needs in the most cost-effective manner possible, enabling the best utilization of invested equipment. New unique capabilities for larger cell coverage are combined with features for flexible capacity expansions within the same base station.

In addition to the current portfolio, a new product featured in the Ericsson GSM/EDGE Expander offerings is an entry-coverage radio base station (RBS 2112), which is introduced for low capacity or fill-in needs.

The Ericsson Expander solutions also include a unique convergent charging solution to address the growing number of prepaid subscribers (up to 95% in many high growth markets). It handles both pre-paid and post-paid subscribers in the same system, eliminating the need for separate billing systems for post-paid subscribers and preservation of already made investments in business support systems.

The first Ericsson GSM/EDGE Expander solutions are available today and will continue to evolve in 2004. Additional products will be released in early 2005.