The global mobile infrastructure market surpassed $1 billion in revenue in the second quarter, led by the Asia-Pacific region, according to a recent report by ACG Research.
LTE-Advanced deployment, evolved packet core deployments, voice-over-Wi-Fi trials and increased interest in end-to-end voice-over-LTE solutions drove the quarter-over-quarter growth.
China mainly led the APAC region growth, which was followed by Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The market stabilized in North America, leading most vendors to maintain flat revenue.
In terms of worldwide mobility infrastructure market share, Cisco Systems saw the largest drop in market share with an 8.2-point quarter-over-quarter drop and a 6.2-point year-over-year decline. The only other operator that saw market share slip was Ericsson, which saw its market share dip by 1.1 points year-over-year, but climb by 1.7 points quarter-over-quarter.
Nokia posted the largest quarter-over-quarter growth in market share – up 2.8 points. Huawei saw the largest year-over-year growth – up 3.1 points. Meanwhile, Alcatel-Lucent notched market share growth of 1.3 points quarter-over-quarter, and 0.5 point year-over-year.
Overall, LTE primarily drove mobile broadband net sales. Although most operators have completed their LTE deployments, ACG expects that the fast-rising data traffic will most certainly require further upgrades of U.S. wireless networks to add more capacity and avoid congestion experiences, such as those recently witnessed in New York and Chicago. This should lead to opportunities for vendors.
“There are three interesting points to note this quarter. The focus of mobile IP infrastructure spending has shifted to the Asia-Pacific region, coming mainly from China; the evolved packet core market is the fastest-growing segment,” said Elias Aravantinos, principal analyst at ACG Wireless and Mobility, in a statement. “This trend will maintain momentum in the next quarters, and it will gain traction even more in North America with significant LTE network expansions.”
Global mobile infrastructure spending posted single-digit growth with most carriers adopting a “wait-and-see” attitude toward new deployments and services. However, EPC spending grew by double digits with growth expected to continue over the next few quarters as operators modernize their networks with new services.
More VoLTE and VoWi-Fi deployments are expected in the next quarters as most operators understand that these services are complementary and offer different benefits for indoor and outdoor support.
In its report, ACG notes the growing trend of virtual service trials that are becoming commercial as more operators recognize the savings and advantages associated with virtualizing certain parts of their network. The first commercial Virtual EPC projects are expected to massively scale by the end of 2015.
In the first quarter of 2015, ACG reported that the worldwide mobile infrastructure market decreased revenue both quarter-over-quarter, and year-over-year. The market downturn was attributed to Ericsson’s North American decline, as most operators had completed their LTE deployments.
