Thursday, February 22, 2018

Nokia Digging In Ahead Of 5G Deployments

Despite a sharp decline after troubling third-quarter earnings, Nokia (NOK) is more or less back where it was the last time I looked at this company, and now we’re all about six months closer to meaningful deployments of 5G equipment (likely to begin in 2018, ramp up in 2019, and really start getting meaningful in 2020). At the same time, the company still has worthwhile opportunities in “ancillary” markets like analytics/automation and enterprise webscale deployments.

Even with the boost that 5G deployments should provide, I do not believe Nokia will deliver all that much long-term growth. Sure, plenty of third-party sources quote figures in the hundreds of billions of dollars for “needed” investment in capacity, but that ignores the realities of the price pressures on companies like Nokia and Ericsson (ERIC), the rise of competitors like Huawei, and the “do more with less” innovations that allow providers to get more out of their installed base.

That doesn’t mean I’m negative on Nokia. I think the shares are still undervalued today, with a possibility that expectations for 5G deployments could improve with time, not to mention potential outperformance from technology licensing and non-traditional/ancillary markets.

Click here for more:
Nokia Digging In Ahead Of 5G Deployments

No comments: