FMC and Femtocell Equipment Markets Poised to Take off in Face of Downturn

Market research firm Infonetics Research has released a report on FMC and Femtocell Equipment, which forecasts that combined, sales of FMC network element equipment and femtocell equipment are expected to grow at a healthy rate through the economic downturn and really take off in 2011, reaching nearly $8 billion worldwide by 2013.

"We expect the FMC and femtocell equipment markets to thrive during the current economic downturn for a number of reasons. First, Orange and T-Mobile, and Rogers Wireless now as well, are driving the UMA market and do not plan to slow down their deployments; in fact, they see the slowdown as an opportunity to lure more FMC subscribers. Second, after a long period of hesitation and trials, Tier 1 and 2 mobile operators are poised to invest heavily in femtocells, which they see as an alternate network to offload their RAN as well as a means of positioning the mobile device at the heart of broadband home networking. As a result, security gateway sales are picking up, and will continue growing rapidly, driven by massive 3G femtocell deployments," said Stéphane Téral, Infonetics Research's principal analyst for mobile and FMC infrastructure.

The report also found that:

• Worldwide UMA network controller (UNC) revenue is forecast to grow at a 44% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2008 to 2013
• A strong ramp up in femtocell deployments will propel the worldwide femtocell radio network controller (RNC) market to a 160% CAGR from 2008 to 2013
• The security gateway segment will top $1 billion in 2013
• 2008 was a breakthrough year for femtocell standards; the industry consensus around the Iu-h standard, together with information gathered from extensive trialing and market research by operators has led to greater confidence in the market-readiness of femtocells
• In 4Q08, Nokia continued its commanding lead in the massive dual service phone market, with over a third of worldwide revenue, followed ever more closely by HTC; Apple leads in North America
• The number of seamless FMC phone shipments jumped 214% in 2008 over 2007
• The number of seamless FMC subscribers jumped 413% to 8.6 million worldwide in 2008 and is forecast to grow nearly 10-fold to 82 million by 2013
• The vast majority of FMC subscribers are UMA-based now, but by 2013 nearly half will be IMS-based

Posted to the site on 19th March 2009