Local mobile operators will defy global decline in infrastructure investment, says new research.
iSuppli predicts spending on wireless infrastructure equipment in China will rise to $6.2 billion in 2009, up 13.2 per cent from 2008.
This compares to overall global carrier spending on wireless infrastructure, which is forecast to decline by 3.5 per cent in 2009 to $39.7 billion.
The Chinese growth is being driven by the country's 3G rollout, spearheaded by China Mobile, China Netcom and China Telecom.
iSuppli expects China Mobile to build on its TD-SCDMA trial in major cities and to continue rolling out a nationwide network this year.
China Unicom will launch its W-CDMA services in the second half of 2009. iSuppli says China Telecom has already started to secure quotes from equipment suppliers for the build-out of its 3G CDMA2000-1x-EV DO network.
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Jagdish Rebello, director and principal analyst at iSuppli, said: “These companies are moving aggressively on their 3G rollouts in order to they try to capture market share in the potentially lucrative domestic market for mobile-data services.”
