The overall 2G, 3G, and 4G infrastructure market,
including LTE and WiMAX equipment, totaled $10.8 billion in Q3 2011, up 8.6 percent
from Q3 2010, and down 4 percent sequentially due to seasonality.
LTE equipment revenue jumped 38 percent sequentially in
Q3 2011 over Q2 2011, and is now more than twice the size of the WiMAX
equipment market.
In Q3 2011, the 4G market (LTE and WiMAX) passed the
$1-billion-per-quarter bar.
Alcatel-Lucent held on to its number-one position in the
LTE market in Q3 2011, less than one market share point ahead of Ericsson.
Huawei outpaced Samsung for first place in WiMAX revenue
market share in Q3 2011.
Yes, there are definitely challenges, and many telecom
carriers, particularly in Europe and the Middle East, are going to have a tough
time generating new revenue, but the fact remains that the telecom world is not
falling apart. The fundamentals of the market are intact; service providers
must continue upgrading their networks to manage relentlessly growing traffic.
As a result, we maintain our view that this crisis continues to have minimal
impact on telecoms overall,” said Stephane Teral, principal analyst for mobile
infrastructure at Infonetics Research.
Despite a sequentially down third quarter for the overall
2G, 3G, and 4G mobile infrastructure market, the market is up nearly 9 percent
from the year-ago quarter. Lighting the way is the LTE equipment segment, up
330 percent from a year ago.
Now that Verizon’s LTE spending has passed its peak, the
-LTE 2nd wave’ has begun, led by AT&T and other operators around
the world, along with the earlier-than-expected ramp up from Sprint. Combined,
these activities are helping LTE take off even faster, prompting us to increase
LTE forecast.
Meanwhile, the future of WiMAX will depend on
diversification into new addressable markets. Opportunities have expanded into
the emerging smart grid segment which is proving fruitful for WiMAX vendors.
The WiMAX Forum has recently initiated its Smart Grid Working Group.
Recently,
Infonetics announced that it expects global telecom carrier capex to total
$310.8 billion in 2011, up 5.8 percent over 2010.
The fastest-growing investment areas among telecom
carriers in 2011 are WiMAX equipment (+27.5 percent) and video infrastructure
(+20.7 percent).
Asia Pacific will continue to be the largest telecom
carrier capex region through 2015, driven by China Mobile, which ended 2010 as
the world’s largest mobile operator by revenue.
Wireless pure-play operators will grow to account for
nearly 1/3 of all telecom carrier capex by 2015.
By Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
