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Mobile infrastructure market update |
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Tuesday, 01 June 2004 |
01 June, 2004: Although there are strong indications of growth returning it appears that the global mobile infrastructure market still has a long way to go before it returns to the heady days of the late 1990s.
A recent study by the Gartner Group reports that mobile operators invested 12% less in 2003 than they did in 2002, a total overall of US$40bn. The seven leading mobile infrastructure vendors won a total of 267 contracts during the year, the vast majority (64%) for GSM networks. Of the remainder, contracts for CDMA and 3G/WCDMA contracts were level pegging at 14% each. In the 3G/WCDMA camp, Siemens was the clear winner with 23 per cent of the market. In Western Europe, Siemens received more 3G contracts than any other supplier, and the first 3G contract to come from Eastern Europe also went to Siemens.
In fact, Siemens is the number one worldwide in terms of network launches: of the 22 3G/UMTS networks already in operation, 12 are from Siemens and its partner NEC. In the overall world mobile communications network market the German vendor ranked third overall and was within one percentage point of taking over the runner up spot. Nokia and Ericsson continue to occupy the first and second positions in the overall mobile market. The Finnish vendor recently announced further successes in 3G being chosen by Vodafone as the supplier for its Australian and New Zealand networks, by Cellcom in Israel and by Polkomel in Poland. The company has also inked a MoU with Telecom Italia for GSM/EDGE and WCDMA. Siemens continues its winning ways, being chosen by Norwegian operator Netcom as sole supplier for GSM and3G/WCDMA technology in a deal worth €200m.
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