Mobile Infrastructure Market Shrank Last Year

According to Dell'Oro Group, in 2002 mobility infrastructure revenues declined 16% to US$28.8 Billion, compared to 2001. This figure included GSM/GPRS/EDGE, TDMA, CDMA (all variants) and WCDMA. In 4Q02, the market was up 15% compared to 3Q02 on seasonal strength. Compared to 4Q01, however, the market in 4Q02 declined nearly 5%. These figures are exclusive of service-related revenue which adds 25-30% to the overall market figure.

WCDMA, which more than doubled compared to 2001, was not able to offset declines in more mature technologies as both GSM/GPRS/EDGE and CDMA declined in the mid-teens versus 2001. In 2002, WCDMA comprised 6% of total mobility infrastructure revenue.

"Looking forward, we expect that mature technologies will continue to be under both price pressure and capital spending cuts by network operators, and that the market will decline by nearly 10% in 2003. Whilst we forecast that the WCDMA infrastructure market will grow to nearly $4 Billion in 2003, these gains will be offset by further revenue declines in the GSM- and CDMA-based infrastructure," says Greg Collins, Director at Dell'Oro Group. "We do not expect the total market to return to growth until 2004."

Posted to the site on 17th February 2003