Europe : Research and Markets announced the addition of the "A Tough Road Ahead for Base Station Components— Worldwide Semiconductor Forecast" report to their offering.

This report is required reading for anyone tracking the state of the cellular base station market and its associated markets in base station semiconductors. Included in this report are the three top forecasts for monitoring the base station equipment and base station semiconductor markets: new base stations, new base station revenue, and new base station semiconductor revenue. All three of these forecasts are broken-out by technology and region.

While research reports of competitor companies contain forecasts of sectors shipped, or base stations worldwide, this report digs deeper to give a clearer view on the market by expanding on the technology breakdown and regional makeup of base station shipments.

Going forward, this will be a tough time for those producing base station equipment and semiconductors, and the weaker companies, or those poorly positioned, will not likely survive. Not only are we facing an economic slowdown the likes of which have not been seen in 25 years, but also infrastructure manufacturers are just coming off an unusual infrastructure growth spurt, with operators around the world spending billions on new 3G equipment. Unfortunately, that growth couldn’t go on forever, and there is nothing like a good recession to get operators to rethink their spending plans.

Cellular Base Station Chip Makers Face Declining Demand

For those making base station equipment and the semiconductors used in them, the next few years may be difficult ones, reports report A Tough Road Ahead for Base Station Components— Worldwide Semiconductor Forecast Base station semiconductor revenue will decline an average of 12.3% per year from 2008–2012, the high-tech market research firm says. There are several reasons for this.

“Many operators have spent heavily on 3G upgrades and they are now waiting for service revenues from these networks before they invest more,” says our analyst. “In addition, the number of subscribers in many areas is reaching saturation, with former double-digit subscriber growth now running in the mid-to-low single-digits. The global recession will also have an impact. Although most people aren’t likely to part with their cell phones, they may replace them less often, and reduce services they don’t find value in or can’t afford.”

Recent research found the following:

The slowing worldwide economy is having wide-ranging negative effects ll regions, with the possible exception of Africa.

Base station semiconductor revenue will drop from $7.2 billion in 2007 to $4.6 billion in 2008.

Of the main technology types, WCDMA is the only technology expected to yield semiconductor revenue growth between 2008 and 2012.

Recent research, A Tough Road Ahead for Base Station Components— Worldwide Semiconductor Forecast, covers the worldwide market for cellular base station semiconductors. It provides forecasts for new base station units, new base station revenue, and new base station semiconductor revenue by region through 2012. Analysis of regional markets and trends is included.

This research is part of the author’s Cellular Infrastructure service, which provides comprehensive analysis of the worldwide mobile network infrastructure and component markets. It includes assessments of market trends and emerging technologies in the wireless infrastructure industry, subscriber and subscriber trend reports, and forecasts and coverage for base station equipment, semiconductor content, voice channels, and power amplifiers.