Ericsson is to make around 2,200 people redundant as part of a cost-cutting and re-structuring exercise, the Swedish telecoms group has announced.

The move will “include both head-count reductions and savings in external costs across the company’s operations globally,” a statement said. Ericsson employs about 120,000 people world-wide.

CEO Hans Vestberg said: “There are two reasons for the cuts: on the one hand, a structural change in production and R&D; on the other, improvements in efficiency.”

The group intends to make savings of some $1.05 billion by the end of 2017.

At the end of last year, the group said it is to “re-focus its business on its core network activities”.

As a result, it will no longer develop modems for mobile phones. The announcement came two days after Sony Mobile announced 1,000 job cuts at a site in southern Sweden that was once jointly operated with Ericsson.