Dell’Oro: LTE RAN Revenues to more than Triple by 2018.

The Mobile Radio Access Network (RAN) LTE equipment market is forecast to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21 percent between 2012 and 2018, according to a new report from Dell’Oro Group.  The top three vendors in the LTE RAN market on a revenue basis in Q3 2013 were Ericsson, Huawei, and Alcatel-Lucent.

“The pace of change throughout the device, application, and infrastructure ecosystem is impacting service providers’ mobile broadband strategies,” said Stefan Pongratz, director of Dell’Oro Group’s RAN and Small Cell Programs.  “We are forecasting that service providers will spend almost as much on LTE radio equipment between 2011 and 2017 as they did on WCDMA equipment between year 2000 and 2012.  This of course means that the LTE peak will come much sooner than the peak in WCDMA, and that spending on legacy technologies will also decline at a faster rate,” continued Pongratz.

Other 5-year Forecast Report highlights:

• Total RAN market—macro and small cell—expected to grow in 2013 and 2014, with one percent CAGR decline between 2013 and 2018
• Near-term growth in China and Europe to offset declining radio spending trends in North America
• Macro investments to remain strong throughout the forecast period with more than 1 M macro (RRU, antenna integrated radio, active antenna system, centralized RAN) radios shipping in 2018
• 40 percent of all macro LTE radios that will ship in the forecast period to use TDD technology.

http://www.delloro.com/products-and-services/mobile-radio-access-network#5-year-forecast-report