Global Mobile Industry Continues to Invest, Profit, and Increase GDP

The mobile industry and its outlook is the envy of Wall Street and leads innovation in an era where wireline telecommunications generally has become a commodity business.

The global mobile industry continues to invest, profit, and increase worldwide GDP growth by 2 percent. Mobile operators worldwide have generated $1.5 trillion in revenues in the last 12 months, served 6.3 billion subscriptions and by 2015 will employ 10 million skilled workers.

The industry continues to invest heavily in LTE worldwide. Today, there are 90 commercially deployed LTE networks with 40 new LTE launches globally in Q2 2012. By year end 2012, there will be 150 commercially deployed LTE networks globally. The US, Japan, and South Korea today account for 9 of 10 LTE subscribers globally according to GSA. Within the next 12 months, these same markets will have completed deployment and enabled nationwide services. European LTE mobile operators are differentiating with speed-based tariffs. U.S. and Canadian mobile operators are focusing on enhanced services such as premium mobile video, RCS, and multi-device data plan pooling.

Looking forward to Q3 2012, areas to watch will be related to global development and mass usability/validation of voice, video, and rich content services over LTE networks. Apple’s release of iPhone 5 with much anticipated LTE support will create significant load and complexity on Verizon Wireless and other major operators with commercial LTE services. As the “iPhone effect” takes on LTE networks, vendors and operators will continue to focus on optimization, real-time network/data services management, and subscriber services awareness/differentiation.

Vendor	Rank	Market Share ($)
Cisco	1	40%
Ericsson	2	14%
Alcatel-Lucent	3	12%
NSN	4	9%
Huawei	5	7%

QUARTERLY TRENDS and DRIVERS HIGHLIGHTS

• Within five years, LTE networks globally will near one billion mobile subscribers.

• The US, Japan, and South Korea today account for 9 of 10 LTE subscribers globally.

• Europe is facing fierce competition in LTE, yielding some of the lowest data prices globally.

• As the “iPhone effect” takes on LTE networks, mobile operators will continue to fine-tune performance, capacity, and network operations.

• Q3 2012 will see mixed performance by vendors experiencing slow growth in 3G business as CapEx shifts to 4G.

For more information about ACGResearch’s mobility services click here or contact sales@acgresearch.net.