Ericsson Boosts Medical Facilities to Tackle COVID-19 Crisis

With governments taking a slew of measures to fight COVID-19 across the globe, Ericsson ERIC deployed its teams in China to reinvigorate medical facilities for communities that have been severely affected by the virus. Novel initiatives to strengthen network capacity have underscored the Swedish firm’s commitment to deploy mission-critical technologies during these challenging times.

Ericsson has been closely monitoring the pandemonium, while taking adequate steps to alleviate its impact on business operations. Moreover, it has left no stone unturned to ensure the health and safety of its stakeholders. In a concerted effort to minimize stress on public health institutions, Ericsson provided its mobile connectivity to various makeshift and permanent hospitals in the Hubei and Zhejiang provinces of China.

The company deployed task forces to provide urgent assistance to China Mobile Wuhan and China Unicom Wuhan to help create four mission-critical base stations in a hospital. Equipped with the best-in-class capabilities of 5G technology, the task forces provided hospitals and onsite project groups with disinfectant accessories such as masks, gloves, anti-epidemic materials and protective clothing gear. Considered as a leading contributor of services such as teleconferencing and telemedicine, Ericsson continues to give priority access of its streamlined networking facilities to the health workers that are battling this crisis on the front line.

Telecom service providers like Verizon VZ and AT&T T have joined the bandwagon with Ericsson to leverage mission-critical technology for additional medical supplies. Notably, Verizon has collaborated with first responders and health-care professionals to provide seamless network connectivity with emergency services in the United States to tackle coronavirus. The Verizon Response Team provides round the clock emergency services to various non-profit organizations and government agencies. AT&T has leveraged its FirstNet platform to come up with a dedicated library of mobile tools for first responders, which is aimed at deploying a secure and interoperable public safety communications platform.

Currently, the Swedish tech giant is seeing healthy momentum in its business on the back of its strategy to increase investments for technology leadership, including 5G. It is on track with its 2020 and 2022 financial targets while making progress toward building a stronger company in the long term. AI and automation are key enablers for future business development, creating customer and shareholder value.

Ericsson has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 17.7%. The stock has lost 17% compared with 6.7% decline of the industry in the past year.

Ericsson currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

A better-ranked stock in the industry is Viasat, Inc. VSAT, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Viasat has a trailing four-quarter positive earnings surprise of 402%, on average.

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