2013/11/28 LTE-Advanced, small cells to lift microwave equipment market; Huawei bounces back

London, UK, November 27, 2013—Market research firm Infonetics Research released excerpts from its 3rd quarter 2013 (3Q13) Microwave Equipment report, which tracks time-division multiplexing (TDM), Ethernet, and dual Ethernet/TDM microwave equipment.

“Though 3Q13 marks the second straight quarter of marginal growth in the microwave equipment market, we’re still projecting an overall decline for the full year 2013 due to price erosion in the hybrid equipment segment in particular,” reports Richard Webb, directing analyst for microwave and carrier WiFi at Infonetics Research.

“The next round of backhaul market growth will be driven by macro LTE-A upgrades and small cell deployments, both of which will require very low latency solutions,” continues Webb. “This will begin to make an impact from 2014 and boost the market for a few years.”

• Globally, in 3Q13 the microwave equipment market totaled $1.16 billion, up 2% from 2Q13, but down 7% from 3Q12
• All-packet microwave accounted for around 23% of total microwave equipment revenue
• Ericsson is again the microwave revenue market share leader in 3Q13, followed by Huawei, who reclaimed 2nd position from NEC
• The overall microwave equipment market will grow at just a 1.4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2012–2017, as the healthy growth of Ethernet microwave is masked by the disappearing TDM microwave segment and the rapidly declining dual Ethernet/TDM microwave segment