Research firm Allied Business Intelligence has revised its projections for third-generation base stations sales for 2003, noting that it expects 35,000 unit sales as against 32,500 as earlier predicted.
The report said although contract awards dipped in August and September, it has revived the positive trend of earlier this year.
One-third of the contracts were awarded in Asia-Pacific, a quarter in the Americas, less than a quarter in Europe, and 15 percent in the Middle East and Africa.
“Though contract wins are on the rise, the overall market will not reach its previous highs any time soon,” said the report.
The market high was more than $20 billion in annual revenue a few years ago, said the report, a height that may not be replicated in the near future. The revenue mark this year is $17 billion, said ABI.
“Due to increasing pricing pressure, revenue growth will lag unit growth as deployments accelerate,” stated Edward A. Rerisi, ABI’s director of research.
In a different report, research firm Alexander Resources claimed CDMA2000 1xEV-DO technology is superior to both W-CDMA and Wi-Fi technology.
In the research report, “CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Opportunities, Challenges and Competitive Strategies,” Alexander Resources said EV-DO requires less spectrum to deploy, delivers higher average and peak throughput, and is less expensive than the other technologies.
The independent report also noted that Wi-Fi hot spots will not eliminate the need for 3G services.
“Wi-Fi hot spots are best suited to serving notebook PC users in select airport, hotel and restaurant locations,” said the report.
The report said EV-DO frees carriers from the “false dilemma of charging data users for the equivalent resources consumed,” adding that its success will reduce demand for current CDMA “data-voice.”
