Nokia's first-quarter group earnings before interest and taxes fell 30 percent from a year ago to 239 million euros on a reported 4.93 billion euros of turnover. Most of the profit was generated by the company's patent licensing business, which grew 136 percent.
However, the Finnish company foresees brighter prospects as commercial deployments for next-generation 5G networks are expected start to take off later this year.
"We see strong momentum building for the full year despite a slow start in networks... We have clear visibility to 5G deals for large-scale commercial rollouts in United States in the second half of the year," CEO Rajeev Suri said in a statement.
Nokia said it expected the global networks industry to fall 1-3 percent this year, a slight improvement from its previous forecast of a fall of 2-4 percent, and predicted its own sales would outperform the wider telecom equipment market.