Ericsson strengthens presence in Brazil
Valor Econômico 04/07/2009
Contrary to the moment of cuts in production and slowdown in investments, Swedish Ericsson opens today the expansion of its plant in Brazil, located in São José dos Campos (SP). R$ 15 million (US$ 6.52 million) was invested in the production of network infrastructure for mobile phones, transmission and optical systems. The company operates in 175 countries and here, in special, sales have been increasing. Ericsson has contracts with most of the Brazilian operators and the local production is exported to Latin American neighbor countries.
Even overseas, Carl-Henric Svanberg, global CEO of the Swedish company, says he believes the telecommunication sector will be one of the least affected ones by the international crisis. According to Svanberg, in spite of the high penetration of the cell phones, we are just in the beginning of "a new era". He says the mobile broad-band, for instance, has everything required to change society. "We have 4 billion cell phones in the world. But the broad-band market is still incipient. It grows four to five times a year, which means more businesses, more investments", he affirms. The data of 2008 were not disclosed yet, but the estimates are that the company has sold R$ 2 billion (US$ 1.1 billion) in Brazil.