EL SEGUNDO, CAAfter two years of declining expenditures, global capital spending on wireless infrastructure equipment is set to grow next year. Capital spending on wireless infrastructure around the world is projected to reach $40.3 billion in 2011up 6.7 percent from $37.8 billion in 2009. This growth will reverse the downward trend that first occurred in 2009. Expenditures dipped 5.7 percent in 2009. This year, they will tumble by an additional 2.3 percent to $37.8 billion. According to iSuppli Corp., next year's growth will occur as carriers in the developed world start deploying fourth-generation (4G) networks.
"The upturn in 2011 signals renewed commitment within the wireless industry to move on expansion plans that had been delayed or put on hold because of the global recession," states Dr. Jagdish Rebello, Senior Director and Principal Analyst for Wireless Research at iSuppli. "Starting in 2011, wireless carriers in industrialized countries will start to deploy 4G in order to attain faster speeds and to unclog the heavy data traffic generated by the exploding use of smart phones. This 4G-driven growth in capital spending will continue at least through 2014" (see figure).
Learn more about 4G in Rebello's report, "Carriers Rationalize Capital Expenditures as Data Traffic Growth Outstrips Revenue Growth," at www/isuppli.com.