Insatiable demand for mobile data has prompted wireless carriers to invest heavily in distributed antenna systems (DAS) to add in-building capacity to their networks. DAS equipment vendors say they see no end in sight, but at least one analyst who follows the market thinks it may have peaked.
Stéphane Téral of Infonetics Research is calling for “an upcoming slowdown” in the growth of spending on distributed antenna systems in North America. He believes that recent growth rates will be hard to maintain. Infonetics estimates that the North American DAS market has posted double-digit growth for almost two years. The firm said that during the first half of 2014, DAS spending in North America was up 19% year-on-year. For all of 2013, it was up 10%.
Some DAS infrastructure providers have seen a slight slowdown in recent months. Speaking at Chicago’s HetNet Expo earlier this month, BlueStream’s Darlene Braunschweig said that buildouts have slowed somewhat during the second half of 2014. To some the slowdown may seem like a welcome pause from what has been a breakneck pace since early 2013.
“In the last 18 months to two years, we’ve hit an inflection point,” said Ross Manire, CEO of ExteNet, speaking at the recent HetNet Expo. “The amount of deployments have gone through the roof, and we’re taking advantage of riding that wave.”
That wave will soon hit the other side of the Pacific, according to Téral of Infonetics. “In the distributed antenna system market, it’s a U.S. versus China game,” he wrote in a research note. “Last year, China was marked by an abyssal slowdown in DAS spending as it was preparing for massive LTE deployments, but the first half of 2014 saw a slight pickup that suggests the shift from LTE coverage buildout to coverage and capacity enhancement is starting.”
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