By Telecom Lead Team: Ericsson and Huawei recorded the
largest full year 2011 revenue increases and maintained their number 1 and 2
revenue share rankings in the mobile RAN market.
The mobile infrastructure RAN market recorded its
strongest full-year revenue growth since 2004. The strong momentum that drove
the mobile infrastructure RAN market in the first three quarters of 2011 slowed
down significantly in 4Q11 paving the way for slower growth in 2012.
“While operators in North America maintained capex
guidance for 2011 and front end loaded investments were expected, it was the
shift in product mix from capacity to LTE coverage that resulted in weaker than
anticipated wireless infrastructure investments,” said Stefan Pongratz,
analyst of Mobile Infrastructure research at Dell’Oro Group.
The product mix will have a large impact on the equipment
market in 2012. LTE RAN investments accounted for 40 percent of global mobile
RAN growth in 2011 and there are no major signs yet of operators holding back
LTE rollouts as a result of a challenging macro economic environment.
The Dell’Oro Group report forecasts the near-term outlook
for mobile infrastructure spend and discusses the drivers of 2011, expectations
for 2012 and changes in spend allocation across regions and technologies.
