Infonetics: Global telecom wireless equipment market forecast to reach $3.9 billion in 2017

The latest research from market research firm Infonetics Research points out that global revenue from telecom-grade wireless network equipment, including telecom-grade wireless access points and wireless hotspot controllers, increased significantly in 2012, up 53% from 2011.

Market leader Cisco once again topped the list for carrier-grade wireless network revenue share in 2012, followed by Ruckus Wireless and Ericsson in second and third place, respectively. All three vendors saw significant year-over-year revenue growth.

Infonetics predicts that the global carrier-grade wireless equipment market will reach $3.9 billion in 2017, driven primarily by mobile operators deploying carrier-grade wireless networks for data offload.

"The carrier-grade wireless networking market is hot right now, driven by exploding demand from wireless operators using WiFi to augment their 3G/4G deployments and offload some mobile data traffic to unlicensed spectrum," said Richard Webb, principal analyst for microwave and carrier-grade wireless at Infonetics Research.

"In general, mobile operators have kept their distance from wireless networks, primarily out of concern that they could cannibalize their data revenue opportunities," Weber said. "Now that operators are beginning to adopt wireless networks to offload excess data and improve the broadband experience for their customers, however, integration with mobile networks will be key if carrier-grade wireless networks are to be successful in the long term."

The Infonetics report also predicts that as demand for carrier-grade wireless networks grows strongly around the world, the Asia-Pacific region - especially China, Indonesia and India - will be the strongest driver of market growth through 2017.

Mobile operators are also competing fiercely for market share - they are rapidly deploying carrier-grade wireless networks to occupy prime small cell sites and then replacing Wi-Fi access points with dual-mode 3G/Wi-Fi and LTE/Wi-Fi small cells.