Ericsson executives voiced caution on its prospects in the first half of 2023 as operators continue to tighten their belts in response to economic headwinds, after revealing Q4 2022 numbers which were dampened by previously-announced charges.

The vendor booked net profit of SEK6.2 billion ($601.7 million), down 39 per cent on Q4 2021, with revenue up 21 per cent to SEK86 billion.

As previously announced by Ericsson, SEK4 billion worth of one-off charges were taken in the quarter. These covered the divestment of its IoT business, changes in its cloud software and services segment and a provision to cover a complaint from US authorities about alleged corruption in Iraq.

On the positive side, Ericsson pointed to the signing of a long-term patent deal which helped bump its revenue from IP to SEK6 billion. CEO Borje Ekholm stated he expects the segment to offer significant revenue growth in the next 18 months to 24 months.

More generally he added the company expects to partly offset near-term headwinds from further market share increases, though described its near-term outlook as “uncertain”.

RAN impact
Following the release of the results Ericsson head of business area networks Fredrik Jejdling told Mobile World Live in a “flat-ish RAN market” the company had already seen some of its “front leading customers taking and signalling their capex is coming off a bit”.

He added customers had also been “shelving a bit of stock over the past few quarters due to the supply chain situation,” noting the pair of factors “makes the short term perspective a bit choppy into H1 next year”.

However, he pointed to “a big pick-up” in some of the emerging markets, citing India as an example of a country where it recently “gained some significant share”.