We have been present in most of our markets for more than 100 years, building strong, long-term relationships with the world’s leading operators. Our significant scale advantage, end-to-end offerings and a local presence in every major market enable us to serve as a true partner for cost-effective delivery of solutions and support to a diverse base of customers. As operators are increasingly reducing the number of different suppliers they rely on, the responsiveness of our employees and the power of our portfolio of products and services that have built a trust over many decades, will be key to our future success.

Ericsson has earned a reputation for innovation and technology leadership by developing open standards and bringing reliable, cost-effective network solutions to market. Our early involvement in creating new technologies often enables us to be first to market with new solutions – a distinct competitive advantage for operators that choose us as their primary supplier. Our extensive portfolio of approximately 23,000 patents covers a variety of fixed and mobile technologies, including GSM and WCDMA – the technologies that connect more than 80 percent of the world’s mobile subscribers.

Our mission to take our customers forward in the best possible way requires simple, efficient and effective processes that consistently yield high-quality products and services with low cost of ownership. This, combined with our core values of professionalism, respect and perserverance, are key to our ways of working. During the past three years, our emphasis on operational excellence has enabled us to increase sales without increasing operating expenses at the same rate.

The efficiency of the R&D activities has been improved, enabling a faster time to market for products and increased investment in new areas such as multimedia solutions while decreasing R&D as a percentage of sales. We reduced R&D lead time more than 25 percent in 2007 and have reached the target of a 50 percent reduction in time to market one year ahead of plan.