4G Equipment Spending on Base Stations Will Approach $3 Billion in 2011

Around the world, operators are starting to move out of 4G trials and switching to commercial services. With 4G, there will not be the generous allocation of spectrum to which the 3G licensees were lucky enough to have access. The re-farming of spectrum and its reallocation from alternative applications such as broadcast TV and military communications will be necessary.

“Provisioning 4G services and spectrum re-farming will provide a welcome boost to the wireless infrastructure market. ABI Research estimates that 4G equipment spending on base stations will reach almost $3 billion in 2011 and potentially $16.5 billion in 2016,” says Jake Saunders, VP for forecasting.

According to ABI Research, in 2011 approximately 32,000 base stations will be upgraded and retrofitted to support 4G services. Approximately 19,000 base stations will be deployed onto new sites to help infill capacity and remove dead spots and poor coverage zones for 4G enterprise and residential users. A considerable amount of that equipment will be in the 2.5 GHz and related bands, but operators will be keen to deploy into lower frequency bands.

In a number of countries, regulators are clawing back the spectrum generously allocated to analog broadcast television and auctioning off the “digital dividend” frequency bands (790-862 MHz) to help support the rollout of 4G mobile network services, especially for more widely scattered towns and villages.

“Innovative technologies such as HSxPA, HSPA+, LTE, and LTE-Advanced are helping operators make the best use of the spectrum at their disposal,” adds mobile networks practice director Aditya Kaul. “However, engineers are increasingly approaching the limit of how many bits of information can be carried per Hertz of spectrum. You just cannot get away from the advantages of having additional spectrum to boost capacity.”

It is not just mature telco markets such as France, Portugal, the UK, and Switzerland that are in the process of allocating 4G spectrum in the 800 MHz band, but also India, Chile, Argentina and Poland. More will follow.

Follow these links for more information about ABI Research’s “Wireless Infrastructure Market Data” which forms a key part of the firm’s Mobile Networks Research Service.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 30+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.​