The Market for Telecommunications Test Equipment

Report Highlights

• The worldwide annual market for telecommunications test equipment used for performance monitoring, maintenance and troubleshooting will grow from $6.0 billion in 2005 to $11.0 billion in 2010, an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 12.9%.
• Basically, the demand for test equipment will follow the installed bases of telecommunications operating systems. The value of test equipment shipped for use in wireline networks will grow from $2,997 million in 2005 to $3,730 million in 2010 at an AAGR of 4.5%.
• Wireless networks will have a larger installed base in 2010 with test equipment sales reaching $7.269 billion, up from $3.011 billion in 2005 at an AAGR of 19.3%.

INTRODUCTION

Telecommunications networks, consisting of subscriber lines, trunks, switches and associated network equipment, are moving towards wireless and broadband connections that require new test equipment in which computers are used as testing platforms. Moreover, the introduction of an optical means of communicating that precludes mechanical connections for testing also complicates and influences the testing of telecommunications equipment.

SCOPE OF STUDY

This report on telecommunications test equipment

• Groups test equipment into 13 categories: analog test equipment, bit error rate testers (BERTs), central office based DSL test equipment, field DSL test equipment, protocol analyzers, radio test equipment, microwave test equipment, cable test equipment, fiber optic test equipment, test equipment for switches, the direct testing part of operations support systems (OSSs), other centralized test equipment, and other test equipment
• Discusses the status and trends of telecommunications networks together with their impact on the requirements for testing
• Analyses markets into four areas: North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia and the Pacifi c, and Latin America and the Caribbean
• Offers 5-year forecasts, company profi les and patent reviews.

METHODOLOGY

BCC used both a top-down and a bottom-up approach to analyze the worldwide production and consumption of telecommunications test equipment. Values are given in 2004 U.S. dollars.

In estimating the growth rates of the demand for test equipment, consideration was given to its density (user lines per subscribers, per 100 inhabitants), and its relation to the gross national income/product. These calculations were applied for each country individually (and for Hong Kong and Macao separately).

INFORMATION SOURCES

BCC surveyed several hundred test equipment users and manufacturers to obtain data for this study. Data was compiled from current financial and government sources.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bertil C. Lindberg is an educator, analyst, researcher, entrepreneur, and independent consultant with a breadth of international experience in the electronics, telecommunications, and data communications fields. Lindberg started his career in telecommunications at Ericsson, in Sweden, and has dealt with practically every telecommunications operating company in the world. He has taught at Northrup and the State University at Pomona in California, the New York University and the Polytechnic University in Brooklyn. Since the early 1970s he has worked as an independent consultant advising a global clientele on market and technology issues in electronic communications. He has published several books and numerous articles and reports. Lindberg graduated in electrical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and in economics and marketing at the Stockholm School of Economics.