LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Ericsson Chief Executive, Carl-Henric Svanberg said Friday that he expected the European mobile phone operator market to consolidate in coming years and welcomed the move.
"There are four to five operators in the United States handling a whole continent. There are around 40 to 50 in Europe," said Svanberg, speaking to journalists in Stockholm, following the company's second-quarter results.
Svanberg said that recent consolidation in the European market - such as Telefonica taking a stake in Telecom Italia - was leading to some operators putting a spending holds on planned infrastructure extensions.
Network sharing initiatives, such as the one by Vodafone Group and France Telecom's Orange, were also effecting sales, said Svanberg. Ericsson reported flat quarterly sales of SEK11.5 billion in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in the quarter.
However, despite the effects, Svanberg welcomed the long-term consolidation of the sector, saying it would create a more stable market.
-By Daniel Thomas, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-20-7842-9264; dan.thomas@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires"
Posted to the site on 20th July 2007
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