3G Base Station Market Growing

The market for wireless infrastructure has been under constant pressure to adapt to new markets, technologies, and changing standards. The base station plays a key role in these cellular networks, and is under extreme pricing pressure and market competitiveness. Vendors and suppliers to the wireless base station market are looking for areas of growth with few strategies for relief. Continued lack of visibility haunts the players in this market as they search out the high ground.

There are some areas for opportunity in this market with the changes in contracts and shifts in network timetables. The 3G equipment market represents the largest sector in terms of revenue growth over other air interface technologies. Research firm Allied Business Intelligence (ABI) projects a CAAG of 49% for 3G gear spending from 2002 to 2007. This growth rate is slightly down from previous projections, as the market continues to be hesitant.

"This market has been difficult for the past few years, and equipment vendors are looking to make gains in the markets that count," explains Tim Shelton, ABI Senior Analyst and author of the report update. "Targeting the markets that are going to grow will be key for survivors in this market."

Spending for 3G base station (BTS) equipment will continue to become a larger portion of the whole over the next several years. The percentage of 3G BTS spending in 2007 is projected to grow to greater than 78% of the total BTS market. Trends this industry will continue to experience through 2003 include:

-- Lack of visibility

-- Tough pricing conditions

-- 3G sector, largest area for growth

-- Potential for complementary technology

The report, "Wireless Base Stations, Global Deployments and Revenue for 2G, 2.5G and 3G Systems," an update from ABI's 2002 report, examines the pending transition to 3G, including the various hurdles faced by operators, equipment providers and startups. A regional examination is included to give readers a view of how global networks are changing. The study is available as a standalone report or as part of ABI's Wireless Infrastructure Subscription Service.

TODAY'S PRESS RELEASES

The 3G service, which is initially being opened to a number of key business partners, provides superior data speeds of up to 144kbps, which will enable faster downloads and enhanced voice capacity.

Integrated Mobile Technologies, specialists in business lifestyle products for mobile handsets, announced today the launch of Traffic-i, a service that provides up-to-the minute, visual traffic information on the Sony Ericsson P800.

Utilizing the TMS320C6416 DSPs, the industry's highest performance DSP designed for digital baseband processing, TI helps to reduce costs for carriers by offering a smooth migration from 2G to 3G.

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The wrist watch costs 37,000 yen (excluding tax) and comes with a standard accessory kit including battery charger, cushioned pad and adjustable wrist band. An optional cable (SI1001) that connects the WRISTOMO with a PC to exchange data costs 6,200 yen (excluding tax).

Ericsson Hungary head Staffan Pehrson on the importance of research, the urgency of starting 3G, and why the local firm will not fall victim to a global downsizing.

Tele2 AB announced that Tele2’s mobile operator in Luxembourg, Tango, has launched its 3G (UMTS) network. Tango is the largest mobile provider in Luxembourg and Tele2 was awarded a UMTS license in Luxembourg in May 2002.

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NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that it has sold more than 10 million camera phones since launching the first model, the SH251i, on June 1, 2002. The phones transmit photos via the i-shot™ photo messaging service available on DoCoMo's PDC network.

IIR, the conference event organiser, is concerned with the current SARS situation in Hong Kong. Altough the situation could improve over the next few weeks, IIR felt it prudent to postpone the 3G World Congress that was scheduled for 9 – 13 June.

By the end of 2003, H3G Italy is expected to make Euro 200M says Vincenzo Novari - Head of H3G.

Hutchison 3G and Vodafone face more residents objecting to the erection of 3G masts. This time in Lewisham, UK. The residents have won backing from Lewisham Coucil's planning department who object to two new masts in the sub-distric of Ladwell.

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Monet Mobile Networks, a high-speed wireless Internet service provider, announced the availability of Monet Broadband, a high-speed, mobile Internet service in Bismarck, N.D.

Telia's mobile customers first in world to be able to use MMS via GPRS throughout Western Europe and the U.S.

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Kyocera will offer versions of its Phantom, Blade and Rave Series phones that support BREW 2.0 to carriers who wish to extend their BREW-based content offerings to the mass-market segment of wireless customers.

WiseBand Communications Ltd., a leading innovator in the field of RF power amplifier linearization technology, announced the introduction of Wise-DPD, a breakthrough linearization technology for multi-carrier power amplifiers (MCPA) for UMTS/CDMA2000 base-stations.

he call is fully compliant to 3GPP standards and test cases as an end-to-end WCDMA FDD voice call. It was made from a standard Ubinetics Test Mobile (TM100) to a Node B basestation implemented on picoArrays, to a controller and core network.