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GLOBAL WIRELESS GROWTH IN INFRASTRUCTURE STEADY

NEW YORK-The global market for cellular and personal communications services infrastructure is growing, according to research conducted by Northern Business Information Inc.

Results of the study show the growth is driven by opportunities in developing markets and major PCS buildouts in the United States, the company said.

Northern Business, a New York-based telecommunications market research firm, projects the global infrastructure market will exceed $31 billion by 2000, representing an annual growth rate of 6.7 percent.

“This spending will essentially come from three sources: existing analog cellular operators upgrading their networks to digital, new cellular and PCS/PCN network buildouts and the purchase of advanced technologies that allow carriers to offer new value-added service features to their customers,” said Bukasa Tshilombo, research manager at Northern Business and co-author of the report.

“We project, however, that wireless vendors and carriers will continue to find their richest revenue opportunities in the United States PCS marketplace, and in developing markets such as Latin America and the Asia/Pacific region.”

The report, World Cellular Network Equipment Markets, said L.M. Ericsson and Motorola Inc. dominated the world cellular network equipment markets in 1995 with more than 31.2 percent and 21.7 percent market share respectively.

Northern Business said the companies’ presence in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom and China contributed to their success.

Lucent Technologies Inc. earned the third place spot due to its large U.S. presence, and Nokia Corp. controlled the fourth-place spot largely because of its expansion contracts from European Global System for Mobile communications customers in Scandinavia and Digital Cellular Services 1800 customers in the United Kingdom and Germany, the firm said.

Northern Telecom Ltd. was a close fifth with GSM projects in Asia/Pacific and Western Europe, success in U.S. PCS markets and a strong presence in Latin America.

In addition, the report profiles cellular and PCS vendors and operators, determines vendor market share based on revenues and subscribers and analyzes supply and demand of cellular and PCS markets.

Northern Business Information is a research and consulting firm monitoring the global telecommunications market.

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