Pyramid: Mobile Capex to Fall

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Mobile carrier capital expenditures (CAPEX) on infrastructure will enter a progressive decline beginning in 2006 that will see infrastructure investments decrease from 47% of total operator CAPEX to 33% by 2009. While infrastructure spending will remain the largest slice of the CAPEX pie, Pyramid Research’s new report, “Mobile Operator CAPEX: Charting the Transformation of Mobile Carrier Spending,” examines how vendors must adapt their business models to address the evolving mobile operator expenditure patterns to capture new, non-infrastructure investment opportunities.

Report author Ozgur Aytar states, “The rapid growth of non-infrastructure spending is due to the combined effect of factors ranging from demand for additional capacity to convergence and network evolution towards next-generation networks (NGNs).” Operator investments are shifting from coverage-based radio network deployments towards advancements in the core network, new applications, and network professional services. Increasing network complexity and the fierce competitive market are creating new business opportunities outside of the traditional equipment business for vendors. The opportunities with managed services, systems integration, performance services, and other consultative services will experience rapid growth over the next several years.

With the move towards NGNs based on open standards, operators are shopping around to look for best-in-class products. Vendors must create ecosystems to build attractive portfolios and have the capability to compete on price. Aytar concludes, “To provide end-to-end solutions, vendors will increasingly rely on partnerships and acquisitions of other sources of expertise. In the NGN world, service providers will evaluate the ecosystem as much as they evaluate the vendor itself.”

Pyramid Research