LTE equipment expenditure is expected to ramp up quickly in 2011. ABI Research estimates that LTE equipment spending will grow 120 percent in 2011 to reach almost $1 B. This increase is supported by more than 185 deployments and trials around the world. But despite the hype and rhetoric surrounding 4G, the wireless infrastructure deployment market is still largely dominated not just by 3G upgrades, but even by 2G (GSM-EDGE) swap-outs and coverage build-outs. In China, for example, China Mobile has been concluding a major TD-SCDMA push to extend coverage and to improve quality of service for existing covered areas. More than $22 B has been spent on TD-SCDMA equipment to date. Wireless infrastructure spending will migrate to TD-LTE. China Mobile has been intensively trialling TD-LTE in Shanghai and other cities.
