The small cells market has grown reliably over the last few years, and the trends indicate yet another robust year in 2018, according to the latest report by Mobile Experts.
"While residential femtocell unit shipment declined in 2017, indoor and outdoor small cell carrier deployments drove the overall market growth. All the market trends that we're seeing bode extremely well for the ecosystem suppliers as carrier units yield higher margin and higher ASP than residential units," commented Principal Analyst Kyung Mun.
According to Mobile Experts, the small cell volume will grow at 21% CAGR or higher during their forecast period from 2017-2023. Network expansions will bring more small cell deployments along with the extension of macro base stations in new bands and new areas, as end-user demand is now driving toward very dense data traffic. American operators are more aggressive about their network CAPEX investment plans, and indoor deployment towards 5G in China is moving right along.
"As market players jockey for 5G leadership, small cell investments are integral," explained Principal Analyst Kyung Mun. "China Mobile, Jio, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and other operators are all covered in this report. Every operator has unique requirements, so the number of product variations has grown dramatically."
This year's Mobile Experts Small Cell Report includes revenue contribution from Distributed Radio System (DRS) Hub units, not just the DRS radio units, since they are integral to the overall DRS solution.
As a result, the revenue forecast is higher than last year's forecast. By 2023, Mobile Experts expects the market to double, reaching over $5.7B in sales revenue., test automation and auto-resolution to drive-up productivity gains.
