Telecom revenue $1.86 trillion in 2011, CAPEX $311 billion

Market research firm Infonetics Research (Campbell, Calif., U.S.A.) on Tuesday released excerpts from its Service Provider Capex, Opex, ARPU, and Subscribers report, which reported that telecom capital expenditures (CAPEX) were up 6% to $311 billion in 2011, while revenue was up 8% to $1.86 trillion.

"The near-6% increase in global telecom carrier CAPEX we expect in 2011 over 2010 is due in large part to AT&T's ramping LTE deployments, HSPA+ upgrades, and investments in WiFi hotspots for traffic offload,” says Stephane Teral, principal analyst for mobile and FMC infrastructure at Infonetics Research. “This offsets Verizon Wireless' slowing mobile spending since their LTE rollout peaked earlier this year.”

In the EMEA region, a capex increase in Africa is offsetting delays in telecom investment in Greece, Italy, and Hungary, says Teral, while Asia Pacific remains stable.

In the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA), América Móvil (Mexico City, Mexico) and Telefónica (Madrid, Spain), the two telecom giants that control 75% of CALA’s mobile subscribers, are preparing their infrastructure to host the soccer World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016, according to Teral.

Infonetics stands by its view that the debt crisis in Europe is having little impact on its telecom CAPEX forecast.

“As long as credit remains available to telecoms at a fair price, the ongoing sovereign debt crisis should have little impact on telecommunications equipment spending,” says Teral. “Investment plans across world regions suggest mobile broadband and FTTx is the name of the game going forward."

According to Infonetics, some report highlights include:

• In the 10 years from 2005 to 2015, telecom service provider revenue has shown year-over-year growth every year except in 2009

• Following a 4.1% increase in 2010 over 2009, telecom service provider revenue will grow 7.6% in 2011, to $1.86 trillion

• Telecom carrier revenue is forecast to grow to $2.17 trillion in 2015, driven by mobile broadband

• Infonetics expects global telecom carrier CAPEX to total $310.8 billion in 2011, up 5.8% over 2010

• The fastest-growing investment areas among telecom carriers in 2011 are WiMAX equipment (27.5%) and video infrastructure (20.7%)

• The largest investment areas remain non-telecom/datacom equipment (software, real estate, labor, etc.) and mobile infrastructure, global spending for which is growing 7% and 8.6%, respectively, in 2011 over 2010

• Asia Pacific will continue to be the largest telecom carrier CAPEX region through 2015, driven by China Mobile, which ended 2010 as the world's largest mobile operator by revenue

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