Ericsson Execs Discuss 2G, 3G in China

From Ericsson's (ERIC) Q1 2007 earnings conference call earlier today:

Carl-Henric Svanberg - President and CEO

Finally, we have China where the decision was taken by authorities to start a major trial of TD-SCDMA, the Chinese standard in eight cities. And we expect 3G licenses not to be awarded before that trial is over. It's probably going to take the remainder of the year or more so. And that has started off investments in 2G again where there's a pent-up demand. So, China should be a pretty interesting year.

Alexandre Peterc - Exane/BNP Paribas

Okay. Thank you. Can I just have a quick follow-up on TD-SCDMA? You were mentioning China Mobile, having extensive steps there. Can you tell us what is your position in that technology and to what extent you would be involved in that? Thanks.

Karl-Henrik Sundström - CFO

Yeah, TD-SCDMA. I mean, it's quite clear and I think everybody understands and we've said it a few times that TD-SCDMA will play its role in China. They want to build up their Chinese standard, I guess they did (inaudible) and so on and competence. It is hard to see that would play a bigger role as GSM has a much more natural migration over to wideband CDMA. So, once they go for building out 3G I think, we will see wideband as we have expected it all the way. That's what was expected to happen sooner than it does.

On TD-SCDMA, we got awarded a smaller piece of it, the only foreigner that actually got that. This is a trial system and it [fits this] and after that trial, we will see more of what happens to it. And as time has gone by, we have actually done more in that field. So, we start to be fairly equipped should the time come, and there should be interest. Because it's a standard with much lesser economies of scale, operator will have to pay more money for the equipments simply because there is those effects. And if the prices are good, we can participate. It's really going to be a bit of a deciding factor for us in China.

Related:

Latest Conference Call Transcripts from Seeking Alpha.

Why We Publish Transcripts of Earnings Conference Calls.

Sponsoring Conference Call Transcripts at Seeking Alpha.