Small cell market to grow to $6 billion by 2020 with enterprise growth leading the way
LONDON – The “World Summit” of the small cell industry kicked off in gloomy and grey weather in London’s Docklands – but the mood inside was anything but downbeat.
Kicking off the conference, Small Cell Forum Chairman Alan Law talked of an industry expecting 41% compound annual growth rate between now and 2020 – becoming a $6 billion market in the process. Quoting figures from analyst house Mobile Experts, Law highlighted shipment growth in the enterprise market of some 61%, and said 185,000 units had already been delivered in the first quarter of the year.
“We’ve passed 14 million units shipped in total, broken the $1 billion revenue market in a single year and are looking at strong growth – especially in the enterprise space – right around the world,” Law told the conference.
Law backed up the global growth claim with some regional breakdowns. In both Latin America and Europe enterprise shipments increased approximately 200% year-over-year, with an even stronger picture emerging in North America where Law put the enterprise growth at an impressive 280% in the 12-month period. As further evidence of the global growth trends, Law said Indian market operator Reliance Jio expected to deploy approximately 150,000 small cells this year alone.
Law was speaking on the same day the Small Cell Forum published its HetNet Foundations document . To illustrate the role the growing network of small cells is expected to play in the heterogeneous network environment, Law predicted that by 2020, small cells will be responsible for some 85% of global network traffic.
