Growing mobile phone use pushes base station deployments

Pressure on mobile networks is increasing all over the world as mobile phone users are not just texting and calling but are using more advanced features on their phones. The shift from 2G to 3G is helping facilitate web-browsing and the use of applications including video-intensive apps. Carriers are also deploying an increasing number of macro base stations, and according to In-Stat, over 6 million of these will be deployed by 2014.

"The amount of infrastructure spending in China, India, and the US is mind boggling," says Chris Kissel, industry analyst, In-Stat. "Over 1/3 of new base stations deployed from 2011 to 2014 will be in China, India, or the US, resulting in a substantial shift in the structure of the industry. Clearly, CAPEX spending will move industry leadership from Western Europe to wireless's new Big Three, comprised of China, India and the US."

While the increase in cellular infrastructure spending is happening all over the world, there are regional and even local differences as to which technology is being employed and supported. This factor has been instrumental in the development of the largest trend in macro base stations, which is the ability to facilitate multiple airlinks. Major mobile operators are making networking upgrades at sites using the same racks and wiring, in addition to enabling software-defined radio (SDR) base stations in order to create an environment where mobile operators can upgrade their networks as needed.

In-Stat research has found that the Asia Pacific spent over $22 billion in each of the three years from 2008 through 2010. Meanwhile in Canada, new base stations grew 30 percent in 2009 and another 22 percent year-over-year in 2010. In the Philippines, In-Stat reports there are roughly 1,500 active base stations supporting 802.16e WiMAX.And in France, the analyst predicts 7,000 LTE base stations will be deployed in in 2014. Also, Nigeria will deploy almost 5,000 GSM GPRS & EDGE/EDGE+ base stations in 2011.