Three forces toward the networked society

• Mobility, broadband and the cloud as foundation of networked society
• Predicted close to 5 billion mobile broadband subscriptions by 2016
• Ericsson and Akamai to guarantee quality of service for cloud services from mobile network

Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC), said in his address to journalists on opening day of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that "only our imaginations can stop us" in realizing a networked society, where everything that can benefit from a connection will have one.

Vestberg says three forces are coming together as the foundation for the networked society: mobility, broadband, and the cloud.  To support all three forces, he listed new products and concepts launched by Ericsson at Mobile World Congress. Those include: the Ericsson Device Connection Platform, which helps operators quickly and easily launch machine-to-machine solutions, Antenna integrated radio  - the first stepping stone towards a heterogeneous network,  IP networking portfolio, and a PC as a Service solution, which allows operators to bundle software in the cloud on top of mobile broadband subscriptions for consumers.

The President and CEO highlighted that Ericsson has launched 16 LTE networks in 11 countries on 3 continents. "We will not compromise on technology leadership," Vestberg said. He also emphasized that the growing services business is a unique competitive advantage for Ericsson, the only vendor to have won a managed services deal for LTE. "Our customers trust us to help them build, manage and run the world's best networks and we can draw from that for future LTE products, solutions and deployments. We put our customers first," he said.

Vestberg stressed the importance of quality assurance in the network, especially as cloud services become a place for new business innovation and services.  "The network is the make-or-break part of the equation," he said, and announced a strategic alliance with Akamai to ensure quality of service through to mobile devices.

Akamai President David Kenny joined Vestberg onstage to introduce the partnership, which begins with a joint setup of an optimized content delivery network on a global basis.

 Additionally, Ericsson launched a range of different caching solutions in the Smart Services Router and Radio Network Controller to help operators improve the end-user experience and to optimize capacity use in IP and radio networks, respectively.

Vestberg spoke of combining IT and telecom into a new ICT industry where possibilities were heightened for innovation and collaboration, and ideas are exchanged online without limits on time or geography, and new business models are being tested continually. "Only our imaginations can limit us when thinking about the potential of the ICT industry in the networked society," he said. Several recent services-wins in ICT, both in Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific are paving the way for even more business in this domain.    

Notes to editors:

Our multimedia content from the press conference is available at the broadcast room: www.ericsson.com/broadcast_room

Ericsson is the world's leading provider of technology and services to telecom operators. Ericsson is the leader in 2G, 3G and 4G mobile technologies, and provides support for networks with over 2 billion subscribers and has the leading position in managed services. The company's portfolio comprises mobile and fixed network infrastructure, telecom services, software, broadband and multimedia solutions for operators, enterprises and the media industry. The Sony Ericsson and ST-Ericsson joint ventures provide consumers with feature-rich personal mobile devices. 

Ericsson is advancing its vision of being the "prime driver in an all-communicating world" through innovation, technology, and sustainable business solutions. Working in 175 countries, more than 90,000 employees generated revenue of SEK 203.3 billion (USD 28.2 billion) in 2010. Founded in 1876 with the headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX, Stockholm and NASDAQ New York.

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