EJL Wireless Research Reports Global BTS Market Volumes Hit Record Levels again in 2015, Up 16%

Salem, NH May 23, 2016 – The global base transmitting station (BTS) market grew by 16% in units in 2015, according to the latest report from EJL Wireless Research titled “Global Macrocell Base Station/Remote Radio Unit Market Analysis and Forecast, 12th Edition, 2016-2020.” “Record shipments were driven in part by China Mobile’s TDD LTE network deployments, China Unicom’s HSPA+ and FDD LTE deployments, and China Telecom’s FDD LTE deployment. 2015 was all about China,” says founder and President, Earl Lum. The report provides a unique perspective on the global shipments and demand for base station equipment covering all air interface standards and frequencies and major OEMs including Ericsson, Huawei Technologies, Nokia Networks, Samsung Electronics, and ZTE. The report also analyzes shipments of remote radio units (RRU).

“LTE eNodeB shipments increased by 23% in 2015, as demand for TDD and FDD LTE in China drove shipment volumes. We estimate that TDD LTE eNodeBs remained at 28% of overall LTE eNodeB shipments in 2015. With China CAPEX spending peaking in 2015 and declining in 2016, we are modeling a difficult three year outlook for the industry,” says Lum.

Some key predictions from EJL Wireless Research LLC for 2016 are:

• Global BTS shipments will be down 12%
• Global eNodeB FDD LTE shipments are expected to be flat
• Global eNodeB TDD LTE shipments are expected to decline 44%
• Global NodeB W-CDMA/HSPA+ shipments are expected to decline by 5%

The top suppliers for overall base station shipments as well as by air interface standards for 2015 were:

• Overall #1 BTS Supplier: Huawei Technologies
• Overall #1 GSM BTS Supplier: Huawei Technologies
• Overall #1 W-CDMA/HSPA+ NodeB Supplier: Ericsson
• Overall #1 CDMA BTS Supplier: ZTE
• Overall #1 LTE eNodeB Supplier: Huawei Technologies

EJL Wireless Research has also included its first initial outlook for 5G technology. While Korean and Japanese mobile operators are focused on mobile broadband applications for 5G, US operators such as Verizon Wireless may leverage mmwave frequencies for fixed wireless 5G services “We believe that the 26GHz and 28GHz spectrum are key frequency bands that mobile operators will focus on instead of higher frequency bands at 40GHz or 60GHz. We do not expect substantial volumes for 5G infrastructure equipment to ship until 2022,” says Lum.

The report is currently available for purchase and information can be downloaded at www.ejlwireless.com ■