CommScope, Corning Mobile and TE Connectivity are leading the distributed antenna system (DAS) market in 2013, said Infonetics Research.
Global DAS revenue rose 2 percent to $2 billion in 2013, with 1.2 million DAS nodes shipped. Growth driver for DAS shipment was North America, where revenue grew 10 percent.
DAS revenue in Asia Pacific declined 12 percent in 2013. One of the main reasons for the deep dip was China Mobile’s shift to TD-LTE again slowed the overall DAS market.
Stephane Teral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research, said: “DAS has reached the bottom in China, and there are several DAS projects in various countries that are sustaining the market.”
Brazil’s largest mobile operators – Vivo, Claro, Oi, TIM, and Nextel – have formed a consortium that’s building DAS in the soccer stadiums that will host the FIFA World Cup in June.
In the U.S., DAS installations will be combined with small cell deployments for LTE capacity upgrades.
AT&T is deploying picocells, while its rival Verizon Wireless is installing microcells and remote radio heads. “In both cases, DAS will fill whatever gaps small cells do not address and, therefore, will be complementary,” Teral added.
Typical DAS contracts for hardware only (hubs, nodes, remote radio heads, antennas, etc.) now range from $5 to $10 million, compared to just $1 million a few years ago.
The global DAS market is forecast to grow at a 3 percent CAGR from 2013 to 2018, when it will top $2.3 billion, and node unit shipments will pass the 2-million mark.
