Nokia Siemens Networks today forecast only very slight market growth in euro terms in the mobile and fixed telecoms infrastructure market this year.
The network equipment venture, which began operation yesterday, said that over the past few months there had been signs of a slowdown in spending in some regions.
Nokia had previously forecast slight growth in the mobile and fixed infrastructure and related services market in euro terms in 2007.
The venture repeated its target for cost synergies of €1.5 billion annually by 2010.
The new group, which recorded 2006 pro-forma revenues of €17.1 billion, said it had submitted about 140 network bids since November, in addition to separate activities carried out by the Finnish and German parent companies on their own.
The venture, which says it aims to challenge Sweden's Ericsson as the top player in mobile infrastructure, had been due to start operation at the beginning of the year but was delayed by a corruption investigation at Siemens.
The German conglomerate is contributing €2.4 billion in assets to the joint operation, and Finnish-based Nokia, the top maker of mobile phones, will contribute €1.7 billion.