3G Opportunities for Test Firms in China

Considering the imminent Olympics 2008 in Beijing, issuing of 3G licenses to ensure high-speed mobile networks is probable this year. This is likely to drive demand in the wireless test and measurement equipment. New analysis from Frost and Sullivan reveals that the market earned revenues of US$197.7 million in 2005 and is likely to reach US$606.2 million in 2012.

The Chinese government is set to further the growth of 3G technology in China by fostering a robust domestic telecommunications industry. This can lead to tremendous investment in the telecom market and benefit both 3G terminal equipment makers and IT vendors.

3G technology standards including time division-synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) is likely to be the market leader, especially since current wireless communication networks are beginning to support these recent technologies. This is encouraging equipment manufacturers, service providers and consumers to invest in the promising wireless test and measurement equipment market.

"Growing network demands call for greater capacity, increased bandwidth and higher throughput in network systems," notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst David Ren. "Test equipment manufacturers or service providers need to constantly evolve their products and services to meet these demands and keep pace with the developments in the wireless communication industry."

However, the rapidly evolving technologies and standards create a unique challenge for manufacturers. As data, voice and video services converge in the networks, their testing and measurement is becoming more complex.

"Vendors need to enhance test equipment's capability to integrate physical and protocol layer level testing for multiple standards, interfaces and protocols in a single instrument," says Ren.

End users are expecting their test equipment to have a long shelf life and a platform to which they can add other hardware and software modules when new technologies are developed. Manufacturers can retain customers by designing test equipment that is scaleable and easily upgradeable for retaining customers."

Posted to the site on 29th September 2006