BANGALORE, INDIA: The fourth generation (4G) wireless technology Long Term Evolution (LTE) is expected to claim the lion’s share of wireless infrastructure capital spending next year, when mobile carriers are going to migrate to that next-generation standard, finds IHS iSuppli.

Global capital spending on LTE technology is projected to reach $24.3 billion in 2013, nearly triple the $8.7 billion of 2012, according to the research firm's 'Wireless Communications' report.

Also Read: 2011: Top five flicks of networking industry

LTE infrastructure spending in 2015 will rise to $36.1 billion, compared to just $9.0 billion for 3.5G.

“While 3.5G remains the dominant air interface technology in the mobile infrastructure market, the 4G LTE space has been gaining momentum,” said Jagdish Rebello, Ph.D., director and principal analyst, communications and consumer electronics research, IHS. “This trend started in the second half of 2009 when some wireless operators in Europe, North America, Japan and South Korea started to deploy LTE technology."

This growth is expected to allow LTE to overtake 3.5G, which will end its five-year run this year as the dominant category in wireless infrastructure gear spending. In 2013, 3.5G infrastructure technology will generate $19.8 billion in revenue.

"The number of mobile network operators that are trialing, deploying or commercially operating 4G LTE networks now has grown to about 200 worldwide, up from 160 in 2010. And such widespread support will drive carrier spending on LTE to surpass 3.5G by next year,” he added.

On the Road to LTE
For infrastructure manufacturers and semiconductor suppliers, LTE represents a strong revenue growth potential and an opportunity to develop long-term relationships with carriers. To this end, manufacturers are developing hardware solutions labeled as “Any G to LTE” that support easy software upgrades to LTE, while maintaining backward compatibility with the legacy 2.5G and 2.75G wireless technologies still in use in some parts of the world.

“The vendors that will win in the transition to 4G will be those that can demonstrate cost-effective, upgradable solutions capable of delivering performance as defined by the LTE specifications,” Rebello said.

Supporting peak data rates that are significantly faster than the maximum speeds of 3.5G/3.7G technologies, LTE represents an all-Internet Protocol networking technology. LTE also offers advantages like reduced latency, flexible bandwidth provisioning, and lower cost-per-data-bit transmitted. These features will be the key ingredients to supporting the exponential data traffic growth on networks expected to occur during the next few years.