Mobile capex to grow to $163.5B in five years, ABI predicts

Mobile capital expenditures exceeded $131 billion last year and will grow to $163.5 billion in 2013, driven by increasing traffic and preparations for fourth-generation networks, according to a new study from ABI Research.
The unstable U.S. economy will cause mobile capex in North America to remain flat this year, but other regions will increase their capex commitments for new second-generation and third-generation deployments and upgrades, all-IP service discovery platform upgrades, SoftSwitch unified core systems and preparations for fourth-generation deployments, said ABI.
North America and the Asia-Pacific region are estimates to be the largest mobile spenders, said ABI analyst Hwai Lin Khor.
“Mobile industry spending in the Asia-Pacific area is primarily driven by the emerging markets that are expanding current 2G network footprints and new 3G rollouts; many nations in this region have yet to release their 3G licenses,” said Khor. “Mature markets such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong will be spending on service delivery platforms, 4G base stations and related components, IMS, and in-building wireless systems.
“North American spending is primarily driven by 3G upgrades to HSDPA/HSPA for the W-CDMA evolution and EVDO Rev A for the CDMA evolution, as well as activities around mobile WiMAX.”