The Top Mobile Operators Are Not What You Think

As the economy falters and mobile networks get more complicated to operate, the two companies benefiting are Ericsson and Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Siemens, the NYTimes reports. In fact, over the past six years, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens have started managing enough networks to have become the largest mobile operators in the world — representing a total of 355 million subscribers. The companies manage everything from the entire network to parts of the network, including components such as text messaging or data traffic.

While the trend is going full-speed in Europe, especially in Britain, the U.S. is slow to adopt the strategy. That may change with Sprint (NYSE: S) Nextel, which has been rumored to be in discussions with Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC). In Britain, Ericsson manages significant parts, if not all, of the networks of 3, T-Mobile and O2. In March, the NYTimes said Ericsson added Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) and Nokia Siemens was hired by Orange to manage its British network. Robert Perez, an analyst at IMS Research in Dallas, said the trend will likely pick up in the U.S., too. “It will absolutely be a global phenomenon,” he said. Afterall, if mobile operators as big as Vodafone and Orange are willing to outsource their networks, “I think it is very likely that the Sprint-Ericsson deal will go through.”

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