Expenditures in the wireless infrastructure equipment market slid nearly 19 per cent in one year, falling to $15.4bn at the end of Q3 2012, said ABI Research. However, macro base station sales provided a bright spot, reaching $7.6bn in Asia-Pacific, which accounted for more than half of the total market.

“Expenditures this quarter on LTE base station equipment were at the same level as Q2 2012 and almost three times higher than in Q3 2011, and WCDMA technologies also grew by 21 per cent versus the year ago quarter,” said Nick Marshall, ABI principal analyst. He expects these trends to continue throughout 2013 “with strong LTE growth followed by double-digit growth for WCDMA, against a background of a declining overall market as legacy technologies phase out.”

FierceBroadbandWireless: ABI: Strong outlook for LTE and WCDMA base station sales; TelecomTV content partner.