New Delhi: Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson continued to report a decline in its India business, marking the sixth straight quarter of falling sales.
In the January-March quarter of this year, the company reported a nearly 28% year-on-year (y-o-y) fall in revenue from its India operations to 3.85 billion Swedish crowns (approximately ₹3,360 crore), according to the company’s earnings statement.
The gear maker has been witnessing a fall in sales as telecom operators Jio and Airtel have completed the 5G network rollout. “Networks sales declined primarily reflecting more normalized operator investment levels in India,” Ericsson said in its earnings statement.
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On a sequential basis, however, Ericsson reported a 32% increase in net sales owing to a deal win from Vodafone Idea for 4G network expansion and 5G rollout. During the preceding quarter, Bharti Airtel also awarded Ericsson a multi-year contract extension for 4G and 5G radio access network (RAN) in India.
The company follows a January to December financial year.
“We sustained solid momentum in Q1, despite a challenging and fast changing macro backdrop, and our results highlight our competitiveness…Looking ahead, we remain confident of our strong position in mobile networks and expect enterprise to stabilize during 2025,” said Börje Ekholm, president and CEO of Ericsson.
“In the evolving global trade landscape and macro volatility, we continue to focus on controlling what we can control and delivering to our customers,” Ekholm added.
Despite India remaining Ericsson’s second-largest market, its share in the company’s global sales dropped to 7% in the January-March quarter from 10% in the same period last year.
Until the July-September quarter of 2023, Ericsson had experienced record sales in India due to increased investments by telecom operators in the rollout of 5G networks.
Globally, Ericsson’s total sales during the January-March quarter rose 3% y-o-y to 55 billion Swedish crowns (approximately ₹48,000 crore). Sales fell 25% sequentially. Ericsson’s net profit globally saw an increase of 63% y-o-y in the January-March quarter, reaching 4.2 billion Swedish crowns (approximately ₹3,669 crore).
