Ericsson secured a EUR500 million loan from the European Investment Bank to support its research and development work, focusing on next-generation mobile broadband technology.

Ericsson remains the world’s largest wireless infrastructure equipment vendor with its market share growing by 1.2 percentage points to 25.5 percent in the second quarter of 2012, ABI Research said this week. However, the company is increasingly under pressure from number-two vendor Huawei, which grew its market share by 2.9 points during the same period.

The Swedish infrastructure giant has an option for disbursement until April 2014, with the loan maturing seven years after this date. The loan will further diversify the company’s funding sources without impacting gross debt, it said in a statement.

"We are using new smart devices and apps in new ways and need them to function well all the time everywhere. It's changing the way we live and it's placing new requirements on the networks. Our research and development is focused on providing the best performing networks that meet those requirements," said Ericsson’s head of business unit networks Johan Wibergh.

Ericsson invested SEK32.6 billion into R&D in 2011, which it said allowed it to "maintain its position as the key contributor in the development of open telecom standards, with some 30 000 patents held today".

According to Ericsson, more than 40 percent of global mobile traffic is transmitted over its networks, which support more than 2.5 billion subscribers.