Rocky Year Ahead for RAN Market; Strong Growth in Mobile Core and Soft MSC Markets

The worldwide mobile network infrastructure equipment market topped $45 billion in 2007, and is expected to decline to $41 billion in 2011, pushed down by declining radio access network equipment sales, despite expected strong growth in the soft mobile switching center (MSC) and packet core markets, says Infonetics Research in a new report.

The report says worldwide RAN equipment revenue was up 16% in 4Q07 from 3Q07, primarily driven by GSM deployments and a pick up in network upgrades in North America. Meanwhile, a delay in 3G license issuance in China and India is exacerbating the already weak 3G infrastructure market, the report shows.

"While we do expect 2007 to mark the inflection point for the worldwide RAN market, after which the overall market will begin its slow decline due to waning GSM deployments, the RAN market was up in the fourth quarter, due mainly to big gains by Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens," said Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure at Infonetics. "On the bright side, we expect a stellar year for the packet core market, driven by HSDPA rollouts. 174 3G/HSDPA networks are now commercially launched in 76 countries. "

Other highlights from the report:

• There are more than 3 billion mobile subscribers worldwide as of 2007, 45% of which hail from Asia Pacific
• Ericsson retains its #1 position for overall RAN equipment revenue market share with 30%, ahead of Nokia Siemens, Alcatel-Lucent, and Nortel
• Worldwide mobile core network revenue will grow in the double digits annually through 2011, driven by increasing mobile Internet traffic and the iPhone
• Sales of soft mobile switching centers, which provide call control, signaling, and intelligence for mobile networks, will grow in the double digits annually through 2011
• Sales of home location register (HLR) equipment are up 28% in 4Q07 from 3Q07

Posted to the site on 11th March 2008