Q: Nokia recently secured a network contract from Guangdong Mobile, which could be a breakthrough for Nokia as Guangdong, the largest single provincial mobile telecoms market in China, used to be an area dominated by Ericsson. What do you think of Ericsson's current competitive edge, especially after a slew of mergers and acquisitions in the industry, such as the Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia-Siemens tie-ups?

A: If you have been following Ericsson's sales, you will see thay fluctuate a little bit between quarters. But overall they are very stable and showing strong momentum. So we defend our market positions quite well. We have a stable position. In certain provinces, we are bigger than anyone else.

Overall, we have been in China for about 114 years. We probably have the strongest position of all the vendors. We have one-third of the market. I don't really see how that will change. I'm sure that (mergers) will help our rivals in certain situations, but they may also open up opportunities for us (to grow).

Q: What are your expectations for the performance of Ericsson's China operations? What is your long-term goal for the Chinese market?

A: On average, we estimate that we have a 33-35 per cent share of the GSM market in China. Our ambition is to secure that market share also through the transition to 3G. That is definitely difficult to say as we even don't know when 3G will happen. But we do have that prediction.

We do understand that Chinese vendors will get a much bigger role in 3G network business than they had in 2G network business. But on the other hand, there are several international 2G vendors that now are not providing equipment to 3G. We will try to hold on to our market share.

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