There once was a global demand
For more video; it got out of hand.
The networks grew small,
Couldn't handle it all,
So the Swedes got to build out their brand.
Enjoy National Poetry Month while it lasts. Proving once again its top-dog position in the wireless infrastructure market, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) just presented another quarter of solid growth in both sales and profits. And management took the time to explain what's driving the truck these days.
Not that it's a very surprising driver or anything -- online video is making the world thirsty for bandwidth, forcing mobile operators to upgrade their infrastructure to newer, faster 3G platforms and beyond.
CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg said that mobile broadband traffic has doubled in six months, as Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) YouTube and other video services are bringing the existing networks to their knees. With bottlenecks thusly exposed, Vodafone (NYSE:VOD), AT&T (NYSE:T), and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom (NYSE:DT), among others, come knocking on Ericsson's door, looking for new base stations.
In other news, the handset operation Ericsson runs together with Sony (NYSE:SNE) is doing well, gaining market share and growing revenue at a time when many other cell phone makers are reporting slow sales, especially on the high end. Is the success of one handset maker enough to support the Texas Instruments (NYSE:TXN) claim that the order slowdown has hit bottom and started bouncing back? I'm not sure. Let's wait for confirmation from a few other mixed-signal chip makers before jumping to any conclusions.
Further Foolishness:
- Dial "0" for Lawsuit
- Ericsson Gets Set to Rule the Zoo
- Gadgets, Gadgets, Who's the Greenest of Them All?
Vodafone is a Motley Fool Inside Value pick. You can check out any of the Fool's newsletter services with a 30-day free trial.
Fool contributor Anders Bylund holds no position in any of the companies discussed here, and he doesn't own a cell phone anymore. You can check out Anders' holdings if you like, and Foolish disclosure will make your day, every day.
