- Nokia reported net sales up 12% for Q3
- The Nokia CEO said the company has already started on early 6G radio work
- He also noted that China is no longer a core market for Nokia
Nokia’s new CEO Justin Hotard said on the company’s third quarter earnings call today that the Finnish telecom equipment vendor continues to see the mobile business stabilize, with sales down 1% compared to a year ago.
“Approximately 70% of 5G standalone core network deployments outside China use a portion of Nokia’s 5G core stack, and network penetration is still less than 30% for 5G standalone core,” Hotard said.
Hotard noted that Nokia had recently signed a deal with Three and Vodafone in the United Kingdom. The vendor will provide 5G radios for around 7,000 sites in the country.
Addressing how the company will move the mobile business sector from just — or not quite -— breaking even, the CEO said it would initially involve focused engagement with customers, particularly those customers that want to innovate and collaborate with Nokia. “I think differentiation for us longer term comes through innovation and technology leadership,” he said
6G prep work
“We’re doing work early on 6G, I would say pre-standard 6G radio technology,” Hotard revealed in the Q&A session of the call. The CEO noted that this is all tied into AI and cloud RAN. Fierce has reported before about how much AI capabilities will be baked into 6G before.
“There’s going to be a new generation of radios in terms of, hopefully, frequencies with spectrum approvals and, of course, 6G capabilities in terms of spectral efficiency,” Hotard said talking about the pre-6G radio work Nokia is undertaking. “There’s a lot more to do in terms of radio capabilities and features.”
China not a core market
Despite Hotard’s complaints about how Western telecom vendors are treated by the Chinese government in September this year, he recognizes that it is not a core market for the company anymore. “The revenue in China has come down massively over the last few years,” he said. “The reality is it’s a fraction of our revenue today, and our market share is fractional in mobile networks in China.”
He said Nokia follows communications from the government. "We follow those closely, we respect and support their decisions,” he said. Nonetheless, Nokia is going to focus on markets where it believes there’s significant opportunity and it can collaborate and innovate.
The numbers are in
As well as the mobile business somewhat stabilizing, optical networks grew 19%, coming largely from AI and cloud customers. Cloud and network services delivered 13% net sales growth as operator investments in 5G Core remain strong, the company said.
Overall, Nokia reported net sales for the quarter up 12% at €4.83 billion ($5.61 billion), on an adjusted operating profit of €435 million, which fell 10% year-on-year. Nokia is planning to reveal long-term expectations for next year and beyond at its Capital Markets Day in New York City on November 19.