Ericsson's 3G profits will wait until 2004

Swedish telecoms equipment maker Ericsson's third-generation network business will not be profitable until 2004 at the earliest because of operators' delays in rolling out the technology, analysts said on Wednesday. Also Ericsson's sales next year of equipment for 3G--an always-on, high-speed technology that enables mobile phones to send and receive multimedia messages--will be much lower than previously expected, they said.