Three vendors claimed between them to have an almost 90% share of LTE infrastructure contracts at the end of 2013 according to figures supplied to Informa Telecoms & Media.
Data provided by the leading suppliers of LTE radio access and core network equipment as part of Informa’s quarterly LTE validation process revealed that there was a total of 621 LTE network infrastructure contracts at the end of 2013, with 88% of these contracts shared among just three companies – Huawei, Ericsson, and Nokia Solutions & Networks (NSN).
According to the vendors’ own data, Huawei added over 50 LTE contract wins in the final quarter of 2013, Ericsson added just under 30, and NSN added 21.
After validating the data (see Validation section below) and taking into account contracts classified by the vendors as “under NDA”, Informa Telecoms & Media found that, despite the significant difference in the number of contracts declared for the quarter, relative contract shares were only slightly altered compared with end-3Q13, with ZTE (which declined to participate in the contract validation process), the only vendor to lose contract share overall.
Without applying Informa’s validation criteria, the number of contracts claimed gives Huawei a slightly higher share of 39% of total contracts; Ericsson is a little lower at 31%, NSN a little higher at 19%, and Alcatel-Lucent remains the same at 7%.
Contract wins
In the final quarter of 2013, Huawei picked up LTE deals in six CALA markets, as well as in several countries in Asia Pacific and Eastern Europe, while Ericsson had key wins with Japan’s KDDI and Chunghwa Telecom of Taiwan.