The explosion of wireless data usage and overall mobile traffic is creating new opportunities for the Long Term Evolution (LTE) test equipment market segment, a new Frost and Sullivan analysis, High Growth Opportunity: LTE Test Equipment Market, has found.
How much of an opportunity? Consider that in 2011 this market segment generated $760.8 million in revenue. Projections for 2018? $2.85 billion – a 375-percent increase. That is substantial and something of which investors may want to take careful note.
Why the huge uptick? For the vendors in the LTE test market space, it’s the result of a virtuous circle:
- Smartphones and tablets drive huge demand for wireless data.
- The wireless operators in turn continue to speed up the deployment of next-generation 4G/LTE (or at least what today passes for 4G).
- The availability of higher-speed networks increases the appetite for mobile users to put more mobility to work (a good example is the quickly increasing use of mobile videoconferencing).
- Mobile application usage relative to high bandwidth ranges from numerous large downloads (such as high resolution photos) to long periods streamed video.
- Mobile applications are, in turn, expanding the scope of mobile toolsets beyond smartphones and tablets, to include wirelessly connected laptops and especially Ultrabooks.
- Laptops and Ultrabooks can and do run much more substantial business applications, which typically use substantial data sets.
- The use of higher wireless data and bandwidth-consuming applications and services is pushing the deployment of long-term evolution (LTE) technology.
Although the likes of AT&T and Verizon Wireless have been touting the benefits of LTE, outside of advanced mobile regional areas such as Japan, South Korea and of course the United States, most countries have yet to make the move. For example, the U.K. – which was a pioneer 3G country, has not yet done so, as we recently noted in the article Waiting for 4G in the U.K.
Currently, LTE deployments underway globally are backwards compatible with GSM, CDMA, Wi-Fi and WiMAX offerings. Its scalable bandwidth, from 1.25 MHz to 20 MHz, allows wireless operators to offer more voice, data and services in a given bandwidth, which improves average revenue per user and reduces operating expenses.
As the Frost and Sullivan report points out, even as LTE is deployed in large cities, smaller cities will continue to operate on other standards, such as HSPA and UMTS. Rural areas will continue operating on older technology. These multiple technologies operating in parallel with LTE create myriad complex technical issues that make interconnectivity a challenge.
"This presents a key opportunity for the wireless test equipment vendors," noted Frost & Sullivan program manager Olga Yashkova. "They must ensure that LTE devices work seamlessly with legacy networks, in addition to guaranteeing compliance with the latest LTE standards."
The complexity associated with LTE testing, combined with the application-specific demands of customers, has resulted in limited availability of LTE testing tools that meet varying testing needs.
Multiple types of test equipment and technologies for applications such as research and development, manufacturing, installation and maintenance, as well as monitoring, are likely to advance the growth of the overall LTE test equipment market. Supply and demand dynamics clearly favor the vendors in today’s wireless marketplace.
Want to learn more about today’s powerful mobile ecosystem? Then be sure to attend the Mobility Tech Conference & Expo, collocated with ITEXPO West 2012 taking place Oct. 2-5 2012, in Austin, TX. Co-sponsored by TMC Partner Crossfire Media the Mobility Tech Conference & Expo provides unmatched networking opportunities and a robust conference program representing the mobile ecosystem. The conference not only brings together the best and brightest in the wireless industry, it actually spans the communications and technology industry. For more information on registering for the Mobility Tech Conference & Expo click here.
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Tony Rizzo has spent over 25 years in high tech publishing and joins MobilityTechzone after a stint as Editor in Chief of Mobile Enterprise Magazine, which followed a two year stretch on the mobile vendor side of the world. Tony also spent five years as the Director of Mobile Research for 451 Research. Before his jump into mobility Tony spent a year as a publishing consultant for CMP Media, and served as the Editor in Chief of Internet World, NetGuide and Network Computing. He was the founding Technical Editor of Microsoft Systems Journal.Edited by
Braden Becker 
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