Europe is expected to blaze a trail for telco spending in the next few years according to market research firm Infonetics Research. Software-defined networks (SDNs) and network functions virtualisation (NFV) have the attention of nearly all service providers who are on the long road to widespread deployments, it says.
"Expect a slowdown in the Americas, but for a change, Europe will be in the telecom capex driver's seat this year," says Stéphane Téral, principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics at Infonetics Research.
"We're forecasting global carrier capex to rise 4%, with EMEA as the growth engine despite unabated low-single-digit revenue declines all across Europe. After waiting for so many years to upgrade their networks, Europe's 'Big 5'-Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, and Vodafone-have decided it's time to take the plunge."
Co-author of the report Matthias Machowinski, Infonetics' directing analyst for enterprise networks, added: "Economic expansion in mature economies and falling unemployment in Europe is driving stronger growth in enterprise telecom and datacom expenditures this year. We expect the network infrastructure segment to be the main beneficiary of growing investments, followed by security. The communication segment will likely have another challenging year, as companies evaluate their deployment strategy going forward."
Mobile service revenue remains the main telecom/datacom growth engine worldwide, led by the rise of mobile broadband. And, to avoid falling into the role of pipe provider, many service providers are deploying or weighing new architectural options such as caching/content delivery networks, next-gen central offices, distributed mini data centres, and video optimisation