T-Mobile USA, Orange Heat Up FMC Infrastructure Market
According to a new report from analyst firm Infonetics Research, the worldwide fixed-mobile convergence infrastructure equipment market, including UMA network controllers and multi-access convergence gateways, grew nearly 5-fold from 2006 to 2007 and is forecast to grow another 10-fold between 2007 and 2011.
The report says the growth surge in the FMC infrastructure market is due mainly to large FMC deployments being rolled out by T-Mobile USA in the US and by Orange in Europe.
"The fixed-mobile convergence market, which was just emerging last year with strong UMA deployments that started in Europe, has now reached significance in North America with T-Mobile USA's FMC buildout. Meanwhile, UMA remains unpopular in Asia Pacific where large players such as NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, etc. are likely to offer IMS- based seamless FMC," said Stéphane Téral, principal analyst at Infonetics Research.
Other highlights from the report:
- The worldwide dual mode cellular/WiFi phone market hit $26.8B in 2007 and is forecast to nearly triple by 2011
- Nokia is the worldwide dual mode cellular/WiFi phone market share leader by far, followed by HTC and Sony Ericsson
- The number of worldwide seamless FMC subscribers is forecast to grow to 63.7 million in 2011, made up mostly of UMA (unlicensed mobile access) subscribers, although IMS subscribers increase significantly as well
- Significant deployments of multi-access convergence gateways (MACGs) should start in 2008, and heat up over the next few years
- UMA network controller (UNC) manufacturer revenue is forecast to grow more than 10-fold from 2007 to 2011
Posted to the site on 13th April 2008
