Sweden’s Ericsson said its total revenue rose 1 percent to 57.5 billion crowns or $6.6 billion during third-quarter of 2020 — primarily driven by 5G deployments in North East Asia and North America.
Ericsson’s 5G contract wins have touched 112 as more telecom operators are rolling out the 5G network and diplomatic pressure from the U.S. is pushing out China’s Huawei from more countries.
United States, China, Australia, Japan and Saudi Arabia are the top five telecom markets for Ericsson in terms of revenue during the third quarter of 2020.
The company’s third-quarter adjusted operating earnings rose to 9 billion Swedish crowns ($1.0 billion) from 6.5 billion a year ago.
The group’s gross margin, excluding restructuring charges, rose to 43.2 percent in the third quarter from 37.8 percent in the year-ago period.
“Covid-19 has so far had limited impact on our business, but we are closely monitoring any signs of a change in the situation,” Ericsson CEO Borje Ekholm said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
Networks business of Ericsson grew organically by 13 percent and reported a gross margin of 46.7 percent (41.6 percent), reflecting high activity levels in North East Asia and North America.
Managed Services business of Ericsson decreased by 9 percent, mainly due to lower variable sales in a managed services contract in North America post the merger between T-Mobile and Sprint, and transfer of a managed services contract to an associated company.
While the pandemic has hurt revenues for several of customers, and in some cases this has led to a reduction of Capex, we have not seen any negative impact on our business, largely due to footprint gains. However, the pandemic negatively impacted sales in Latin America and Africa, Ericsson said.
