Ericsson today said it will cease to make wireless modems for mobile devices and cut about 1,000 jobs as a result. Ericsson cited fierce competition in the space as playing a role in its decision. More and more handset companies are demanding modems that are built into application processors, such as those made by Qualcomm. Ericsson does not have its own application processor business, and has seen its share in the market drop accordingly. Ericsson said it will shift some employees from the modem business to an R&D facility in its networking and M2M business. Earlier this year, Broadcom made a similar decision to stop making basebands for cell phones.


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