Huawei Overtakes Nokia Siemens Networks in Microwave Equipment Market

Published on: 1st Jan 1970: 1:33am

Huawei has overtaken Nokia Siemens Networks in the microwave equipment market, taking the third-place spot for the first time. Ericsson and NEC continued their battle over the top spot, with Ericsson eking ahead in 2009 by a fraction of a share point, reports Infonetics Research.

"With increasing numbers of telecom carriers around the world upgrading their networks to HSPA+ and LTE, Ethernet-based microwave equipment will get a nice boost in 2010 as carriers continue investing in enhanced mobile backhaul solutions. Mobile broadband adoption by consumers and businesses continues to boom, driving operators to upgrade their backhaul provision from cell sites to the core network. Although the market has been a little soft over the last couple of quarters, mobile operators cannot afford to cap investment in their backhaul networks, or they run the risk of losing customers in what are already highly competitive markets," notes Richard Webb, Infonetics Research's directing analyst for WiMAX, microwave, and mobile devices.

In total, the worldwide microwave equipment market grew from $4.94 billion to $5.85 billion between 2008 and 2009 (up 18%). Following a down quarter in 3Q09, worldwide microwave equipment revenue increased 3% in 4Q09, a modest market performance in a quarter that is usually seasonally strong.

Ethernet-only microwave equipment revenue is forecast by Infonetics to grow at a 100% compound annual growth rate from 2009 to 2014, while the majority of microwave equipment purchased (81% in 4Q09) continues to be deployed to backhaul traffic for mobile backhaul networks.

The single biggest obstacle to the continued adoption of microwave equipment as the dominant backhaul solution is spectrum availability, particularly in Western Europe.

 

Tags: [huawei]  [nokia siemens networks]  [nec]  [ericsson]  [microwave]  [ethernet]