In-Stat: Base station market brightening

In-Stat has released a new report, "Cellular Base Stations 2005: The Future Finally Looks Bright!” suggesting that the market for macro cellular base stations will show some improvement in the next four years after several years of slow-down.

The report states that the number of base stations deployed will increase sharply from 1.8 million in 2004 to 3.5 million in 2009, though the number of new base stations sold annually “will not be consistent…with the number bumping up and down depending on which technologies are being deployed and where.”

In-Stat analyst Allen Nogee stated, "A combination of new technology, base station upgrades, and increases in needed capacity will drive the cellular base station market. While prices for infrastructure equipment continue to drop, the efficiency of the equipment increases, so less equipment is needed to handle a given number of subscribers. Still, increases in base station efficiency cannot keep up with the ever-increasing number of subscribers."

Among other findings, the new reports says that in the last five years, base station prices have dropped by a factor of 10.