Worldwide Telecom Capex Growth to Taper Off in 2023, According to Dell’Oro Group

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – According to a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group, the trusted source for market information about the telecommunications, networks, and data center IT industries, preliminary readings suggest that worldwide telecom capex—the sum of wireless and wireline telecom investments—increased 9 percent year-over-year in nominal USD terms and remain on track to advance 3 percent in 2022 before tapering off in 2023 and 2024, confirming the positive momentum and the growth projections we have previously communicated with the telecom equipment programs (Broadband Access, Microwave Transmission & Mobile Backhaul, Optical Transport, Mobile Core Network, Radio Access Network, Service Provider Routers & Switch).

“Telco investments, in general, have shown remarkable resilience to external factors including Covid-19 containment measures, supply chain disruptions, and economic uncertainties,” said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President and analyst with the Dell’Oro Group. “Surging wireless investments in the US taken together with non-mobile capex expansions in China will keep the momentum going in 2022,” continued Pongratz.

Additional highlights from the March 2022 3-year Telecom Capex forecast report:

• Global capex growth is expected to moderate from 9 percent in 2021 to 3 percent in 2022, before tapering off in 2023 and 2024.
• The coupling between carrier investments and manufacturing infrastructure revenues is expected to prevail over the short-term—capex and telecom equipment are on track to advance 3 percent and 4 percent in 2022, respectively.
• Short-term output acceleration is expected to be relatively broad-based, with investments growing in China and the US. At the same time, challenging comparisons in the US are expected to drag down the overall capex in the outer part of the forecast.
• Following a strong showing in 2021, capex growth prospects across Europe will be more muted in 2022.