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Although full economic recovery is still a ways offs, telecommunications operators seem to be in more of a spending mood this quarter, now that the first of the $4 billion in broadband stimulus funds is about to be handed out.

 

This week, the deputy administrator and deputy assistant secretary for communications and information at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration – the U.S. Department of Commerce agency that advises the president on telecom policy – reportedly said the NTIA hopes to start awarding grants early in November.

Speaking at a wireless show in Nashville, Anna Gomez said that all grants will be announced, hopefully, by Dec. 31.

 

Also this week, global market research firm ABI Research (News - Alert) released data that shows wireless network carriers are starting to invest more money in infrastructure spending.

“Mobile network carriers are picking up the slack on infrastructure spending, increasing it up 8 percent quarter on quarter,” said Jake Saunders, vice president for forecasting at ABI Research.

 

However, “2009 is still likely to close down 4 percent to 5 percent compared to 2008,” Saunders said.

 

According to Saunders, mobile carriers have their sights set on the mobile broadband traffic tidal wave that is rippling through their networks – in both the United States and worldwide.

 

“There has been a noticeable shift in spending towards 3G and 3.5G equipment,” Saunders said. “GSM infrastructure is still selling off the shelves for emerging markets, but in developed markets mobile carriers are expanding their 3G footprints and upgrading existing infrastructure to support HSDPA/HSUPA and even HSPA+.”

 

In Asia, Chinese and Indian markets predicted to make marked contributions to equipment vendor revenues.

 

For more information, ABI Research’s “Wireless Infrastructure Forecasts” database covers wireless base station data including vendor market share, infrastructure revenue broken down by region and technology and new base station deployments.