Cell Base Station Market Retracts Dramatically As 3G Rollout Frenzy Cools

After many years of rapid growth, the worldwide cellular base station market revenue will decline 22% in 2009, with shipments falling from the high levels of the 3G rollout frenzy of the last few years, reports In-Stat. Declining base station shipments are one clear reason for the revenue decline. However, intense competition from Chinese equipment manufacturers ZTE and Huawei have pressured base station selling prices, as operators demand that infrastructure manufacturers decrease costs.

"As voice revenue per subscriber drops, base station demand depends on data growth," says Allen Nogee, In-Stat analyst. "Operators have spent billions on 3G, and are reaping the benefits of increased data revenue. Operators are so worried about not having the fastest wireless network, that they will spend billions more on LTE and WiMAX, though not at the spending pace seen with 3G."

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• Base stations enabled for LTE will exceed 166K by 2013.
• Deployed WCDMA base stations will exceed one million by 2012.
• New LTE base station revenue in Eastern Europe will be nearly $700 million in 2013.
• The last unit shipments of CDMA2000 1X RTT base stations will occur in 2009, with less the 1,200 new base stations being deployed. All future CDMA base station shipments will be EV-DO.
• Shipments of new GSM base stations should remain strong for a few more years.

Posted to the site on 22nd June 2009