The global small cell market to grow from a very small base now to $2.7 billion by 2017, according to a new forecast from Infonetics. Given the current pace of LTE rollouts worldwide, 4G small cell shipments are anticipated to overtake 3G shipments by the end of 2013.
“2013 is shaping up as a kick-off year for small cells, driven by 4G small cells deployed for capacity upgrades,” expects Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research. “AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless in the U.S., Vodafone in Europe, LG U+ in South Korea, and NTT DOCOMO in Japan have all announced major small cell plans, driven by the need to enhance the capacity of saturated macrocellular networks as they seek to deliver denser, higher-capacity coverage to tech-savvy populations in urban areas.”
Some highlights of the report:
- South Korea’s SK Telecom has deployed close to 40,000 small cells and is the leading adopter of 4G public access femtocells to date.
- Backhaul is no longer an inhibitor to small cell growth, but could remain an issue depending on factors such as location or mobile operator.
- Geographically, Infonetics expects Asia Pacific to lead the small cell market in 2013 with 50% of all units shipped, followed by EMEA with 34%, and North America with 14%.