Survey Sez 07/16/12

Infonetics Research says North America and Asia Pacific mobile operators derive more than 40 percent of their revenues from mobile broadband and messaging while also pointing out mobile messaging and voice “aren’t dead just yet, not by a long shot," notes principal analyst Stéphane Téral. Survey data shows SMS growing annually from 2012 to 2016, delivering a cumulative $1 trillion in operator revenue during that time period. During that same period, voice revenue will decline only slightly, still making up a sizable chunk of operator revenues. The research firm also predicts mobile broadband subs will grow from 15 percent to nearly 40 percent of all mobile subs between 2011-16…There’s good news for the global service provider switching and routing (SPSR) market, which came to a halt in 1Q12. Ovum says it’s expected to grow 4.4 percent in 2012 to $15.4 billion, with Alcatel-Lucent and Cisco leading the way…ABI Research forecasts that small-cell equipment market will grow to $14.3 billion by 2017. Including outdoor femtocells, picocells, microcells, and carrier Wi-Fi access points, surpassing 1 million units forecast in 2012, the number of outdoor small cells sold will surpass the 954,000 macrocells forecast for this year. The group projects “real momentum” in the outdoor small-cell market and expects significant growth moving forward; however, “the industry will need to deal with some challenges including backhaul provision, interference mitigation, network management, policy integration, and roaming,” it adds.