After a fantastic 2007 for worldwide base station shipments, results for this year look pretty weak, reports In-Stat. In 2007, many new 3G networks were rolled out around the world and GSM subscriber growth was occurring at a fast clip, driven by millions of new subscribers in India, Africa and China, the high-tech market research firm says. However, those trends will not prevent total worldwide base station shipments from dropping sharply this year compared to 2007.


“New 3G networks are continuing to be deployed and some operators like T-mobile are deploying entirely new WCDMA-type networks,” says Allen Nogee, In-Stat analyst. “However, the worldwide economy has been faltering, subscriber GSM growth—even in fast-growing developing areas—is starting to slow and wireless broadband use, while growing, is not growing fast enough for operators to spawn continued base station growth.”

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

  • Cellular demand in China and India will keep sales of GSM base stations strong for many years.
  • WCDMA base station shipments will exceed those of GSM-type base stations in 2011.
  • 2009 will see a sharp rise in the number of TD-SCDMA base stations shipped.

The research, “Worldwide Cellular Base Station Forecast Driven by Data,” covers the worldwide market for cellular base stations. It provides forecasts for base station deployments by region and by air link through 2012. It includes analysis of trends in the marketplace, including femtocells and TC-SCDMA. Profiles of manufacturers are also provided.