Finland's Nokia has beaten market expectations as it reported strong third-quarter profit growth and lifted the profitability outlook for its core network unit on the back of network roll-outs in North America and China.
The network unit showed a core operating profit margin of 13.5%, up from 11% in the second quarter and topping analysts' average forecast of 9.9% in a Reuters poll.
"Networks benefited from some unique developments in the quarter, with a business mix weighted towards Mobile Broadband and regional mix that included strong gains in North America," chief executive Rajeev Suri said in a statement.
Nokia ranks third in the global network-equipment market after Ericsson and Huawei Technologies.
It said it now expects the network unit's full-year core operating margin to be slightly above 11%.
This compares with its previous forecast of at or slightly above the higher end of a range of 5-10%.
Nokia's total underlying operating profit for the three months from July to September rose as much as 32% from the previous quarter to €457m. Analysts had expected an operating profit of €359m.
In April, Nokia had closed the deal to sell its former flagship phone business to Microsoft, leaving it with the network equipment unit, navigation technology business and a smartphone patent portfolio.
