Telecom Lead India: Nokia Siemens Networks’ plans to restructure its business unit will generate more jobs in India, CEO Rajeev Suri said in Bangalore on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
The Finnish telecom network equipment maker already announced plans to divest its non-profitable business units as part of its strategy to focus on core businesses like mobile broadband. The company recently announced it is considering potential buyers to sell its business support system unit.
Telecom Lead reported Ericsson is one of the potential buyers. The company, however, has not finalized the deal yet.
The company has already sold off the network equipment portfolio for wired networks and exited the WiMax market which has failed to win over LTE.
“I would say overall we have about six divestments that already took place,” Suri told reporters. “They’re either not core to our mobile broadband or we see that the profitability is not where we want it to be.”
Nokia Siemens is facing tough competition from ZTE, Huawei and Ericsson. The worsening economy in Europe has had a severe impact on the telecom equipment provider.
Overall spending by telecom operators is expected to be flat this year although Nokia Siemens sees “some rebound” in investments by customers in the United States in the current second half, Suri said.
While the consolidation move could result in massive layoff, Suri said a major restructuring is on track, and he expects the headcount in India increase after restructure as it scales up its offshore services capabilities in the country. Nokia Siemens currently has around 10,000 staff in India, in addition to 5,000 contractors.
“We’ve taken out significant amount of headcount already, we’re on track in the business line divestiture as well. As I said, we have a couple more (divestments) to go, but we’re on track there as well,” Suri said.
These strategies are paying off for Nokia Siemens. Recently the company said it is set to beat its arch rival Huawei. Kenneth Wirth, the company’s head of customer operations for the Americas and an executive board member of Nokia Siemens, said the company is heading to become the No.2 in global wireless network equipment market for the full year 2013, pushing Huawei Technologies to the third position.
Nokia Siemens has won 64 contracts to supply wireless operators equipment for network upgrades to Long Term Evolution, the strong growth area for the company.
