Nokia booked double-digit growth in mobile network sales and increased profitability during Q3, driven by high levels of demand and easing of supply constraints.

In its earnings release, Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark (pictured) noted it is tracking towards the high-end of its full-year sales guidance of €23.9 billion to €25.1 billion, assuming a number of outstanding licensing deals close.

Lundmark explained while macro and geopolitical uncertainty could have an impact on some customers’ capex, it expects growth in 2023.

“Considering our recent success in new 5G deals in regions like India which are expected to ramp up strongly in 2023, we believe we are firmly on a path to outperform the market and to make progress towards achieving our long-term margin targets,” Lundmark stated.

The CEO added with its strong order backlog and continued investments in supply chain resilience,”we continue to expect to deliver net sales growth in 2022″.

Nokia is aiming for the mid-point of its full year operating margin guidance of 11 per cent to 13.5 per cent: in Q3 it stood at 10.5 per cent.

During the quarter, mobile network revenue grew 23.2 per cent year-on-year to €2.9 billion, with operating margin up 2.5 percentage points to 9.8 per cent.

Network infrastructure sales increased 15.5 per cent to €2.2 billion, with cloud and network service up 7.1 per cent.

Revenue at licensing unit Nokia Technologies declined 17 per cent due to expired licences which are in litigation or pending renewal.

Net profit rose 21.9 per cent to €428 million and total group revenue 15.6 per cent to €6.2 billion.