Telecom operator’s capex down 5.9% in 2009

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: USD 295 billion had been spent by service providers worldwide in 2009 on telecommunication and non-telecommunication capital expenditure projects, 5.9 percent less than they spent in 2008. Investment in network infrastructure by the carriers had been reduced by 8 percent in 2009, with the maximum decrease in IP voice infrastructure, optical network equipment, video infrastructure, and IP routers.

Of all network infrastructure investments made by service providers, mobile infrastructure spending continues to make up the largest portion with about 19 percent. USD 1.65 trillion in revenue has been taken by service providers which also went down 4.2 percent from 2008.

Rankings of the service providers according to 2009 revenue in US dollars is- AT&T, NTT, Verizon, Deutsche Telekom, China Mobile, France Telecom, Vodafone, Telefonica, KDDI, and Comcast. According to analysts, worldwide carrier capex might decline again and bottom out in this year, followed by a new investment cycle starting in 2011 driven by a wave of 2G upgrades, 3G and LTE rollouts, and fibre-based wireline broadband initiatives around the globe.