WCDMA Infrastructure Sales to Reach US$5 Billion Next Year

According to a recently published report by Dell'Oro Group, the Mobility Infrastructure market will return to growth in 2003 due to the first material (nearly US$5 billion) revenues associated with WCDMA or UMTS systems. Without this revenue, the market (GSM/GPRS/EDGE, CDMA, and TDMA) will decline 8% to US$26 billion. Dell'Oro Group forecasts that the worldwide infrastructure market will reach US$34.3 billion in 2006 which is slightly below the level achieved in 2000.

According to Greg Collins, Director at Dell'Oro Group: "Beyond the initial deployment of WCDMA-based systems (through 2004), we see growth tapering significantly as service providers use incumbent technologies (GSM/GPRS/EDGE) for coverage and services outside of high-density metropolitan areas. Investment decisions for WCDMA, beyond the initial deployments, will be contingent upon either a strong adoption rate of data services and/or the need to expand voice capacity via WCDMA spectrum." While the uptake of data services remains difficult to predict for the industry, data usage will become a key driver of infrastructure investment over the next several years.'"

Posted to the site on 1st August 2002