Mobile network vendor Ericsson continues to lead the telecom services outsourcing market in 2013, while HP has overtaken IBM to become the #2 player, said Infonetics Research.
Huawei, which is in the fourth position, gained 2.4 percentage points. The Chinese telecom network supplier had the strongest year-over-year revenue growth of any vendor.
Revenues of network equipment manufacturers outsourced by telecom service providers to perform network services rose 3.8 percent to $68.1 billion worldwide in 2013.
Growth in the overall market moderated in 2013 due to a combination of forex for Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, and Nokia, and major contract restructuring at Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia.
The managed services portion of the outsourcing market, which includes network maintenance, operations, planning and design, grew 6 percent in 2013 to over $36 billion.
Telecom managed services market will reach $45 billion by 2018, said Infonetics.
“It’s hard to find new large outsourcing deals unless China comes on board, which may eventually happen due to the ongoing discussion about 4G network sharing,” said Stephane Teral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research.
In 2013, Huawei and ZTE picked up some deals, while Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia exited some unprofitable contracts. Demand for managed services with a strong focus on user experience remains unabated, said Infonetics.
Baburajan K
