PARIS, FRANCE: Helped by an acquisition of some assets of bankrupt Nortel, Sweden's Ericsson continued to lead in the shrinking global mobile network gear market in the first quarter, research firm Dell'Oro said.

The total mobile infrastructure market contracted 14 percent from a year ago to $8 billion due to steep declines in 2G technologies, the research firm said.

Sweden's Ericsson saw its market share slipping slightly to 34 percent from 35 percent in the previous quarter.

Huawei's market share remained flat at 20 percent, researcher Dell'Oro said in its quarterly market review.

Nokia Siemens Networks, a struggling joint venture of Nokia and Siemens, saw its market share at 20 percent, slipping slightly from 21 percent in the previous quarter.