LG-Ericsson aims for sales peak

LG-Ericsson said Thursday that it hoped the launch of its Long Term Evolution network would give it the top spot in the country’s telecommunications industry.

Lee Jae-ryung, chief executive officer of LG-Ericsson, said that the company expects to surpass its peak sales figure of 1.1 trillion won recorded in 2008 with the nationwide introduction of fourth generation LTE networks.

“It’s difficult for us to make a projection on yearly sales involving LTE, but we believe it could go beyond 1.1 trillion won since network operators are making massive investments this year due to data explosion of wireless devices,” he said at a press conference in downtown Seoul held to mark the company’s first anniversary under its current name.

As to whether the fourth generation network will be defined as mobile WiMAX or LTE, the majority will eventually go after LTE, said Kwon Kyoung-in, chief technology officer of LG-Ericsson.

“WiMAX is a technology that is widely used in the global niche markets, but we’re expecting the majority will select LTE, which is an advanced form of WCDMA technology,” he said.

In a related move, the company plans to increase the number of projects in enterprise solutions so that it can create a similar level of profit compared to the carrier network sector, said Lee.

With 70 percent of its business portfolio focusing on carrier networks, SK Telecom, KT Corp. and LG Uplus are LG-Ericsson’s major customers, according to Lee. The remaining 30 percent of the company’s business is centered in providing enterprise solutions, he said.

“The plan is designed to make up for the loss in profit that will come when the mobile carriers are equipped with a nationwide LTE network in the future,” Lee said. “It’s a task for us to enlarge the growth figure in the markets abroad.”

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)