CommScope leads the global distributed antenna system (DAS) equipment market with 17 percent share in 2012, followed by Hong Kong-headquartered Comba, said Infonetics Research.
Over 1 million DAS nodes were shipped in 2012. Worldwide DAS revenue rose 4 percent to $1.9 billion last year.
DAS revenue represents 5 percent of the total mobile infrastructure market.
The U.S. and China are the world’s largest DAS markets and are expected to remain so through at least 2017 due to the number and size of their stadiums, convention centers, and transportation stations and ports.
Stephane Teral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research, said that most service providers have already included DAS as a key component of their future small cell mobile network expansion plans.
DAS forecast
Global DAS revenue will grow at a CAGR of 3 percent from 2012 to 2017 and DAS node shipments will double, driven by a combination of coverage and capacity improvements in specific venues, said Infonetics Research.
Growth drivers for deploying DAS include coverage, capacity, spectrum efficiency, interference mitigation, data support, scalability, and adaptability.
Sports and entertainment stadiums make up the bulk of the DAS business and are considered in-building or indoor DAS; outdoor DAS is a niche market.