Ericsson’s sales in South East Asia, Oceania and India region falls 17% to Rs 6,342 cr in 1Q25

Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson’s sales in the South East Asia, Oceania and India region fell by 17% year-on-year to 7.2 billion Swedish crowns (~₹6,342.55 crores) in Q1 2025, primarily dragged by normalised mobile network investments by India’s top telecom carriers Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.

The vendor, which follows the January-to-December financial year, reported sales of 8.6 billion Swedish crowns (~₹7,573 crore) in Q1 2024.

‘In the quarter, the first programmable network in Asia-Pacific was announced with Telstra, a multi-year core modernisation was agreed with One New Zealand, and a 5G Core partnership with Bharti Airtel was announced,’ Ericsson said in its earnings statement.

However, in the mobile networks business unit, Ericsson reported a recovery in the Americas region on the back of earlier contract wins and accelerated network investments by other customers, in part reflecting tariff uncertainty arising from the Donald Trump-led administration’s imposition of reciprocal tariff on several countries. This helped it offset strong declines in the South East Asia, Oceania and India, as well as Europe, Middle and Africa.

‘Sales declined significantly in market area South East Asia, Oceania and India, mainly due to lower sales in India after relatively strong sales in Q1 2024,’ Ericsson said.

The mobile network unit’s reported sales increased by 6% year-on-year to 35.6 billion Swedish crowns in the quarter that ended March 31, 2025, which also included a currency benefit of 1.1 billion Swedish crowns.

‘We sustained solid momentum in Q1, despite a challenging and fast changing macro backdrop, and our results highlight our competitiveness,’ said Borje Ekholm, president & CEO, Ericsson.

‘Looking ahead, we remain confident of our strong position in Mobile Networks and expect Enterprise to stabilise during 2025. We are not immune, but we are resilient, with well-diversified production close to the customer and the flexibility to adapt to changing conditions over time,’ Ekholm added.

Previously, both Ericsson and Finnish rival Nokia had seen a sharp surge in India sales from the fourth quarter of 2022 and first quarter of 2023, respectively, shortly after Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio had started rolling out 5G networks nationally from October 2022. However, both telcos concluded their fifth-generation network deployments in the first half of 2024 and are now focused on boosting revenue and driving monetisation of their 5G businesses.

In late 2024, Bharti Airtel also awarded multi-year extension contracts to Ericsson and Nokia to expand 4G and 5G coverage in the country.

Meanwhile, India’s third-largest telco, Vodafone Idea (Vi), concluded three-year $3.6 billion 5G equipment procurement, and 4G modernisation deals with Ericsson, Nokia and South Korea’s Samsung.

The telecom joint venture between Aditya Birla Group and the UK’s Vodafone Group Plc has started providing commercial 5G services in Mumbai from mid-March, and would launch its fifth-generation mobile services in other key cities including Delhi, Bengaluru, Patna, and Chandigarh, with more cities to follow.