LTE Booming! LTE is gaining traction throughout the industry--and not just among subscribers. It is also getting an increasingly larger chunk of network operator budgets. A new report from IHS iSuppli indicates that spending on LTE infrastructure worldwide is set to more than triple from $8.7 billion this year to $24.3 billion next year
That predictions falls in line with what many vendors and analysts from around the industry have been saying about 2013--it's going to be a very big year for LTE. IHS iSuppli further said there will be about 200 LTE networks operating commercially or being deployed around the world by next year, about 40 more than were in place in 2010.
Another report released this week, this one from Dell'Oro Group, suggests that a lot of the spending explosion to come beyond 2013 may center around small cell LTE infrastructure components in particular.
Dell'Oro predicts that the LTE equipment market overall is going to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 45 percent over the next five years. The research firm said shipments macrocell-related network gear will drive LTE revenues in the near ter, but that outdoor metro and pico eNode B equipment will begin to exceed macro shipments in 2016.