Global service provider capex grew by 7% during 2007 to US$248.8 billion (€158.28 billion) compared with 2006, according to Infonetics.
The study projects a spike in worldwide carrier capex in 2008, followed by a plateau in 2010 and a decline in 2011. It stresses how the weak US dollar is inflating growth rates in Brazil, Canada, China, Europe, India and Japan.
The study also found that telecom service providers earned a combined US$1.5 trillion (€954 billion) in annual worldwide revenue in 2007, up 10% from 2006. Currency appreciation made up the bulk of the growth with the rest coming from mobile services.
The world's ten largest service providers (ranked by 2007 revenue) are AT&T, Verizon, NTT, Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom, Vodafone, Telefonica, China Mobile, BT and Sprint. Telecom Italia, Comcast and KDDI are poised to join the top ten.