Market watcher Infonetics (News - Alert) Research’s first quarter 2011 2G/3G/4G (LTE and WiMAX) Infrastructure and Subscribers report forecasts that service providers will spend a cumulative $245 billion worldwide on mobile infrastructure during the next 5 years from 2011 to 2015. Meanwhile, in the first quarter 2011, the long term evolution (LTE (News - Alert)) equipment market caught up to WiMAX equipment spending, with each now accounting for about a half billion dollar market globally, says the report.
In a statement, said Richard Webb, directing analyst for WiMAX (News - Alert) at Infonetics Research and co-author of the report, "WiMAX equipment is one of the few segments of the mobile infrastructure market to see sequential revenue growth this quarter, and also is up 49 percent year-on-year, driven by expansion of existing networks and by the emerging utility and smart grid segment, which is proving fruitful for WiMAX vendors."
Likewise, commenting on the report, Stéphane Téral, Infonetics Research's (News - Alert) principal analyst for mobile infrastructure, said, "The first quarter of 2011 developed as we anticipated, with the global 2G/3G/4G infrastructure market declining 13.8 percent sequentially on the heels of a very strong fourth quarter; the market is up 14.4 percent year-over-year (from the first quarter of 2010), setting the foundation for the new investment cycle that we expect to last through 2014."
While the overall mobile infrastructure market is down sequentially, investment continues, particularly 2G/3G network modernization in Western Europe, CDMA upgrades in North America, and 2G/EDGE capacity upgrades in Asia, according to the Infonetics’ report.
In the 2G/3G arena, the study shows that the only segment posting both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year gains in 1Q11 is packet core infrastructure, up 0.7 percent and 41 percent, respectively. Thus, reflecting the ongoing 3G expansion activity tied to 2G modernization.
Also, the Infonetics’ data reveals that in the 1Q11, Ericsson maintains its lead in the LTE infrastructure market, just ahead of Alcatel-Lucent, while Nokia Siemens Networks (News - Alert) is in the third place. However, Samsung remains the top-selling WiMAX vendor by a large margin, followed by Huawei, Alvarion, and Motorola. The number of LTE subscribers is forecast by Infonetics to top 290 million by 2015.
Ashok Bindra is a veteran writer and editor with more than 25 years of editorial experience covering RF/wireless technologies, semiconductors and power electronics. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by Stefanie Mosca