Telecommunications - Brazil, Regional - Job cuts won't affect planned 4G investments, says NSN LatAm president

By Pedro Ozores?/?Business News Americas

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Telecoms infrastructure supplier Nokia Siemens Networks' (NSN) recent job cuts in Latin America will not affect the company's plans or investments for the region, in particular when it comes to 4G, NSN president for Latin America, Eduardo Ara?jo, told BNamericas.

At end-February, NSN announced it would cut 3,500 jobs by exiting a services deal in Latin America under a global restructuring plan of focusing on higher-margin operations.

Additionally, under pressure from strong competition and drops in smartphone sales, parent company, Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia, announced last week plans to dismiss 10,000 employees worldwide through end-2013.

However, according to Ara?jo, though the companies belong to the same corporation, their operations are different and it is therefore necessary to "separate things." He emphasized that NSN's job cuts are part of a strategy to focus on mobile broadband and customer experience management and services. The company, he said, needs to go from end-to-end to a more tailored approach.

"Being end-to-end is complicated, and our customers were demanding more specific solutions from us. We decided to focus on mobile broadband and customer experience management and services, and channel all of our R&D resources to areas that we think are the future of this market," he said.

LTE equipment is an important part of the company's business focus, Ara?jo added, and as such the company's financial pressures will not affect the investments announced to locally produce 4G equipment. That move is to come in under Brazilian government requirements for the use of locally developed technology in the 4G ecosystem.

In fact, there will be no cuts in Brazil and new hires are being considered, he noted, although these will depend on the partner NSN chooses for the production of the 4G equipment.

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