In a new forecast report*, the independent market analyst firm also reveals IP traffic growth remains robust, driving strong demand for switches and routers in service provider networks. This growth is expected to accelerate further as fixed and mobile broadband subscriber penetration rates increase and consumer video applications drive ever-growing levels of network traffic.
“Carriers will need to invest in growing their IP infrastructure or risk losing subscribers. In developing nations, carriers are building out their 3G wireless networks, while developed nations are investing in LTE to accommodate mobile bandwidth demand,” explained David Krozier, principal analyst, network infrastructure, at Ovum.
North America was the largest of Ovum's geographical regions in 2011 and the Asia-Pacific region, which contains two of the top three global economies (China and Japan), was a close second. Ovum forecasts 9.7 per cent growth in the Asia-Pacific market in 2012 and 4.0 per cent growth in North America. With this disparity in growth Ovum expects the Asia-Pacific region to surpass North America as the largest regional market for SPSR equipment for 2012.
Krozier added: “The SPSR market in the Asia-Pacific and South & Central America regions will grow faster than the global CAGR of 6.4 per cent. The Asia-Pacific region will have a CAGR of 8.1 per cent, growing from US$4.2m in 2010 to US$7.3m in 2017.”
Krozier concluded: “In terms of revenues in Asia-Pacific, the edge router segment is leading the way, reaching US$4.2m in 2017, while the core router segment will hit US$1.6m and the IP/Ethernet router segment will only break the US$1.4m level. This is not surprising, as the edge router plays a key role in carrier networks as the control point for delivering subscriber services.”