Ericsson's fourth-quarter profit rose 13%, boosted by strong sales and its recent integration of British fixed telecom networks company Marconi, an Associated Press report said.
Ericsson said it expects traffic in the world's mobile networks to continue to grow thanks to new services and subscribers, the Associated Press report added.
But Ericsson modified its outlook for the GSM/WCDMA track saying it expects mid-single digit growth, meaning around 5%, in 2007, the report said.
The company had previously forecast moderate growth of around 5% to 9%, it added.
Ericsson said net profit in the three-month period ended Dec. 31 rose to 9.8 billion kronor ($1.41 billion) from 8.64 billion kronor ($1.2 billion) a year earlier. For the full year 2006 and excluding one-time costs and gains, Ericsson earned 26.44 billion kronor ($2.92 billion), up from 24.46 billion kronor ($3.5 billion), the report said.
Sales for the quarter climbed 18% to 53.68 billion kronor ($7.72 billion) from 45.67 billion kronor ($6.5 billion) a year earlier, which was in line with expectations, the report said.