Software and Surging Subscriber Demand Fueling Wireless Infrastructure Growth

US ABI Research: The increasing shift from hardware-only wireless base stations to software-configurable ones continues. Prior to the introduction of such software-based solutions, many industry observers had predicted a soft, flat market for wireless infrastructure. But the accelerating shift in architecture to a software-driven model, coupled with strongly growing subscriber demand — particularly in Asia, which is exceeding all expectations — has pushed the infrastructure market back into profitability. This quarter's update also highlights the continuing rapid expansion of EDGE, the continuing 20+% growth of GSM and UMTS, and the differing approaches to EDGE and UMTS taken by Cingular and T-Mobile in the US market. Software-upgradeable base station designs sees a striking recent development: more and more major infrastructure providers are moving to buy companies that produce that base-station software. Because companies such as Nokia, Ericsson and Alcatel now see greater profit in network deployment, management and service activities than they do in hardware,, They are anxious to assemble the best possible teams of software designers and field technical personnel. Ericsson is noteworthy for a spate of recent acquisitions, purchasing of a number of software firms to round out their portfolio of skills in this area. Wireless Infrastructure Research Service Publ 20050609