Declining GSM sales contributed to a 13 percent drop in total global mobile infrastructure revenue in the fourth quarter, according to research firm Dell'Oro. Total revenue for the market last quarter was around $10 billion. The decline in the GSM market overshadowed the 50 percent growth in the WCDMA market, the research firm said.
The findings correspond to weakness in the quarter among the world's major infrastructure vendors. Industry leader Ericsson's revenue was off 13 percent. Nokia Siemens Networks saw its sales drop 16 percent and Alcatel-Lucent's sales slumped 19.9 percent.
There are some bright spots on the horizon for the market though, according to Dell'Oro. Both WCDMA and WiMAX sales are expected to experience double-digit growth this year, and as more operators begin deploying LTE in the second half of the year, revenue from those deployments is expected to flow into the industry.
However, despite the rise in LTE sales, declines in GSM and CDMA sales are expected to leave total market revenue flat compared with 2010, according to Dell'Oro.
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