Samsung has appointed industry veteran Simon Beresford-Wylie (pictured) as global executive advisor to its networks business, with the former chief executive of Nokia Siemens Networks to be heavily involved in Samsung’s global mobile network strategy.

In a statement, Samsung said the ex-NSN man had “a proven track record in developing and implementing strategies that drive business growth, and it is expected that he will make a significant contribution to Samsung as it strives to become the world’s top tier global mobile network business”.

Samsung is making steady, if not spectacular, progress in winning 4G network contracts outside its domestic South Korean market.

LTE wins for Samsung include the US (Sprint and MetroPCS), Japan (KDDI), Ireland (3) and Saudi Arabia (Mobily).

MTS, Russia’s number one operator, also chose the South Korean supplier this year to roll out an LTE network in Russia’s Northwest Federal District.

IP Hong, VP and head of Europe and CIS sales at Samsung’s network business, said the MTS deal was a milestone in accelerating its equipment operations in Russia and the wider CIS region.

However, Samsung’s stellar success in smartphones is not matched by networks – something which Beresford-Wylie is no doubt tasked with addressing.

According to estimates from ABI Research, Samsung claimed a thin 6.7 per cent slice of the mobile RAN market during Q2 2013. That’s far behind market leader Huawei (31.1 per cent) and the other main network suppliers.

ABI reckons Ericsson had a RAN market share of 23.4 per cent during Q2 2013, followed by Nokia Solutions and Networks (15.9 per cent) and Alcatel-Lucent (14.3 per cent).

Prior to joining Samsung, Beresford-Wylie was working as CEO of Digital Mobile Spectrum, a not-for-profit organisation established by four mobile network operators in the UK to mitigate possible interference issues resulting from the coexistence of digital terrestrial television and LTE service in the 800MHz band.