Wireless infrastructure contracts continued to decline in 2003. But contract awards are expected to increase later this year.
These are the findings of In-Stat/MDR. The findings were reported in "Q2 '03 Wireless Awards." The report tabulates the various infrastructure contract awards that were announced in the second quarter of 2003 and breaks them out by month, region, vendor and technology.
The report states that in the second quarter of this year, specifically, new wireless contracts declined by 13.9% from Q1 '03. Overall, the high-tech market research firm expects that 2003 awards will decline approximately 10% from 2002.
However, the report states that contract awards will begin a steady increase sometime during the fourth quarter of this year, as some signs of recovery have already been seen in the early July numbers.
While the months with $5 billion in infrastructure contract awards seem to be a thing of the past, contracts that have been postponed in the previous two years are showing signs that they are moving along, albeit slowly. Many carriers have contractual obligations, under the terms of their 3G licenses, to get their systems operational within the next few years, and carriers' court challenges against local governments to extend or remove these obligations have generally been unsuccessful. Deployments are occurring slowly, but they are occurring.
In-Stat/MDR also found that:
* Overall, it was a good quarter for market leaders Nortel and Ericsson; although most of the larger infrastructure manufacturers also won some contracts.
* GSM again established a leadership position, accounting for almost 50% of all contract awards. Most of these contracts were for system upgrades and expansion, in some cases laying the groundwork for future UMTS upgrades.
* Notable in this quarter are the four EDGE contracts awarded outside of the US. These contracts were awarded in Malaysia, the Philippines, Brazil and Italy.
In-Stat/MDR is based in Scottsdale, AZ. For more information visit www.instat.com.