Ericsson sees China growth, slow U.S. as first-quarter profit lags

Mobile telecom equipment maker Ericsson said it expected sales in its key North American market to stay sluggish while China would see continued network rollouts as it posted first-quarter operating profit below expectations on Thursday. Ericsson said surging data traffic would mean a further need for upgrades of networks in North America, where rollouts of the latest generation of 4G/LTE networks are largely done and spending at telecom operators has shifted to capacity upgrades. "However,