Cisco increases its lead in high-growth mobile internet infrastructure market

RENO, NV, November 29, 2012

New data from Synergy Research Group shows that Q3 mobile internet infrastructure revenues grew 13% year-on-year, with rolling annualized growth also coming in at 13%. Revenue is being driven by strong growth in mobile IP backhaul (+32% year-on-year) and LTE multimedia gateways (+101% year-on-year); while 2G/3G gateways are still growing at double-digit rates. Asia-Pac is the highest growth region and is now closing the gap on North America for infrastructure revenues.

In Q3 Cisco increased its market share to 32%, its highest ever level, with gains in the quarter driven mainly by an increased share of mobile IP backhaul. Among the leading vendors, Ericsson and NSN also had small market share gains in the quarter; while ALU dropped off and Huawei’s share remained unchanged. Notably ALU is growing very strongly in the APAC region, although its revenues remain small relative to Cisco and Huawei.
 
“With 3G subscriber numbers now reaching over 1.3 billion and still growing by 30% per year, and with LTE subscribers forecast to reach 0.5 billion within five years, we are predicting further strong growth in mobile internet infrastructure revenues” says Jeremy Duke, Synergy Research Group’s founder and Chief Analyst. “In three years’ time LTE multimedia gateways will have become the largest market segment.”