BSS looked good on paper. It provided real-time charging and billing products and had tried to scale up to help customers with large transformation projects. However the full-stack revenue manager didn’t generate any revenue as customers ignored it.

Ericsson said in a statement. “Certain complex transformation projects experienced delays and cost overruns.”

The outfit said said it would speed up restructuring of the BSS business, part of its Digital Services business which accounts for around 17 percent of group sales, and concentrate on its core products, materially reducing BSS losses in 2019.

Ericsson shares rose sharply in 2018 as a cost savings and efficiency program started to yield success across many of its businesses after years of crisis during which telecom network operators reined in spending.