3G Fuels Mobile Internet Infrastructure Sales

May 31, 2012

New data from TeleGeography partner Synergy Research Group show that mobile Internet infrastructure revenues doubled between 2008 and 2011, to $6.4 billion. Two key segments of the market, mobile multimedia gateways and mobile IP backhaul, are growing particularly strongly, with revenue growth of 176 percent and 215 percent, respectively, between 2008 and 2011.

Cisco is the market leader in mobile multimedia gateways, followed closely by Ericsson and Nokia-Siemens. Cisco also leads the mobile IP backhaul segment, followed at some distance by Alcatel-Lucent and Tellabs.

Mobile Internet Infrastructure Revenues vs. 3G Subscribers SRG_MII_5-31-12.png

Source: Synergy Research Group/TeleGeography

The explosive growth of 3G subscribers is the main driver of the mobile Internet infrastructure market. According to TeleGeography, global 3G subscribers nearly tripled between 2008 and 2011, growing from 376 million to 1.1 billion at year-end 2011. As smartphones and tablets proliferate on mobile broadband networks, service providers continue to invest in their mobile Internet infrastructure to meet increasing data and video traffic demands. Investment in LTE networks is also helping to boost infrastructure spending. While there were less than 9 million LTE subscribers globally at the end of 2011, service providers are aggressively rolling out LTE networks around the world.

The growth seen in the mobile Internet infrastructure market is unlikely to slow anytime soon. “TeleGeography forecasts that the number of combined 3G and LTE subscribers will hit 3 billion in early 2016,” said Synergy Research Group’s Jeremy Duke. “Consequently, Synergy predicts that annual revenues from mobile Internet infrastructure will more than double between 2011 and 2016. As the market evolves, we expect to see increasingly sharp competition between infrastructure vendors as they vie for a share of these growing revenues.”

Synergy defines mobile Internet infrastructure as the hardware and software that facilitate the use and operation of Internet applications on mobile networks.

Synergy Research Group’s Mobile Internet Infrastructure research service provides data, analysis and forecasts of the mobile Internet infrastructure market.

Synergy Research Group is a strategic partner of TeleGeography, providing market intelligence, analytics and strategic consulting services to the networking and telecom industries.

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