NSN reports drop in sales; scores Brazil and China contract wins

Infrastructure vendor Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN)  announced that its 3Q13 sales have dropped 24 per cent year on year to reach €2.59m.

The firm blamed the drop in sales primarily due to reduced wireless infrastructure deployment activity and a negative impact related to foreign currency fluctuations. Net sales decreased 6.1 per cent quarter on quarter reflecting seasonality and NSN’s strategic focus, the vendor said.

Gross margin before specific items was 36.6 per cent in 3Q13, the second highest in the vendor’s history, and an improvement of 4.2 percentage points from 3Q12, the firm said. This was primarily due to a higher gross margin in Global Services, it added.

Investment in research and development was reduced in areas not consistent with NSN’s strategy, the firm said, and increased in areas that are most notably LTE.

“I’m delighted with NSN’s continued strong performance in profitability and cash generation,” said Rajeev Suri, CEO at NSN. “In 2014, we will focus on strengthening our topline performance, with a particular focus on growth in LTE and Global Services.”

The firm also announced this week that it has been selected by Brazilian operator Oi Brasil to supply the infrastructure for its LTE network. In addition, NSN will also upgrade the operator’s GSM and 3G networks across the country.

Under the contract, NSN will transform Oi Brasil’s network in several regions to a Single RAN (Single Radio Access Network) system based on its Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station for GSM, 3G and LTE. As part of the core network, the company will provide its Liquid Core based Evolved Packet Core platform. In addition, NSN will also deploy its Subscriber Data Management Platform and its One-NDS subscriber data management system for a centralized database repository. The scope of the deal also includes network planning and optimization, systems integration and care services, including hardware and software services.

Furthermore, the vendor also announced this week that it will implement a “significant share” of China Mobile’s TD-LTE network.

Under the contract, NSN will deploy key radio network elements for China Mobile’s 1.9 GHz, 2.6 GHz and 2.3 GHz frequency bands, including its innovative Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Stations. The solution will cover new single-mode implementation of the TD-LTE network. In addition, NSN will deploy part of the network in TD-SCDMA / TD-LTE dual mode, supporting TD-SCDMA site software upgrade to the dual mode implementation.