The global market for LTE infrastructure grew significantly in Q3 2012, but this was not enough to offset the overall decline in wireless equipment spending, which was down 4.7% from the previous quarter and down 4.0% from the year-ago quarter, according to Infonetics’ newly released 3rd quarter 2012 2G, 3G, 4G (LTE and WiMAX) Infrastructure and Subscribers market share and forecasts report.
“We saw strong LTE activity in the U.S., Japan, and South Korea in the third quarter, contrasted by weak activity in the BRIC countries, for a total 30% bump in LTE equipment sales worldwide,” notes Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research. “LTE was indeed the lone bright spot this quarter, as the rest of the mobile infrastructure market dragged the overall market down, led by a sharp drop in CDMA gear. Despite the current lethargy, we anticipate a strong pipeline moving forward, with 2013 fully charged with a good mix of 2G, 3G, and LTE equipment purchases. China Mobile alone has a nationwide TD-LTE rollout plan of 100,000 eNodeBs.”
Some highlights:
- Nokia Siemens Networks jumped from #4 to #2 in the LTE equipment market after more than doubling its LTE revenue in 3Q12, significantly closing the gap with market leader Ericsson and passing Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei
- From the year-ago 3rd quarter, global LTE infrastructure sales are up 131%
- Infonetics forecasts LTE subscribers to grow nearly 5-fold to top 51 million worldwide in 2012
- The Global Mobile Suppliers Association expects 166 commercial LTE networks by year end
- CDMA2000 continued its freefall in 3Q12, down 16% sequentially and down 46% year-over-year, reflecting the beginning of the long declining tail curve
- The WiMAX ecosystem is shrinking, with fewer vendors continuing to support the technology as they stake their long-term futures on LTE.
