The chairman of Siemens does not expect a significant recovery in investment levels in the telecoms sector for at least 18 months.
But Mr Heinrich von Pierer told the German newspaper Handelsblatthe believes investment by telecoms providers will recover.
He told the paper there would be only a small amount of growth in global sales of mobile handsets this year. Mr von Pierer said: "I expect handset sales of just over 400 million units."
PA