ABI Research’s latest forecast for the outdoor small cells market indicates a healthy growth in equipment revenue for 2014 at a year-on-year rate of 33% to $1.8 billion. According to the researcher, this growth comes thanks to operators like AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, Telefonica, Softbank, SK Telecom, and Sprint driving shipments of both outdoor and metrocell deployments.
“As mobile network operators implement small cell outdoor networks, several success factors emerge as critical for a successful deployment,” notes Nick Marshall, principal analyst at ABI Research. “We see multiple solutions for backhaul, power, permitting, and siting employed by the operator community throughout the rest of 2014, which will increase small cell momentum in 2015.”
See also: Analyst: Small-cell market bouncing back after two rough years
According to the firm's latest report, in 2014, 4G small cells are the fastest growing small cell type in the market driven by venue and dense urban deployments. ABI Research forecasts the number of LTE small cells to grow by 2x in 2014, and by a similar factor each year through 2019 where the value of LTE small cells will reach more than half of a $10 billion equipment market.
Also, the Asia-Pacific region, given its large size and 4G deployments in South Korea and Japan, and the start of commercial TD-LTE operations in China and India, will grow to represent over 50% of the worldwide small cell equipment market by 2019, predicts the researcher.
ABI Research’s forecasts, which outline these trends, are published as part of the firm's Small Cells and Carrier Wi-Fi Research Service. For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.
More: Report: Outdoor small cell backhaul market set to boom
