Worldwide Cellular Infrastructure 2012–2016 Forecast: While HSPA+ Will Continue to Drive Future Cellular Spending, Operators Embrace LTE

This IDC study examines the cellular equipment market as defined by technologies such as GSM, UMTS (including HSPA variants), LTE, and CDMA. It presents a five-year forecast for worldwide cellular infrastructure spending by technology. It also studies the performance of equipment vendors and evaluates the key aspects leading to industry-leading growth and performance.

"Despite a challenging macroeconomic environment and slowing revenue growth, operators are increasingly compelled to invest in new wireless infrastructure to maintain capacity ahead of mobile data traffic growth. We continue to expect the bulk of radio spending to focus on HSPA+ solutions; however, operators are investing in flexible multi-RAN technology that will allow for easy upgrade to LTE as spectrum becomes available and market conditions dictate," says John Byrne, research director for IDC's Wireless Network Infrastructure practice.