LONDON -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 04/10/07 -- Competition has become even more cutthroat among next gen mobile and wireless broadband service providers, says Infonetics Research in a new study about North American, European, and Asia Pacific operators.

The study, "Service Provider Plans for Next Gen Mobile and Wireless Broadband," shows 65% of providers rating competition and customer retention as the most challenging of their business concerns.

As competition increases, the contest becomes focused on the range of services offered rather than price, so creating new services is key to driving revenue, says Infonetics.

"Beyond basic voice and access services, mobile and wireless operators are focusing on increasingly popular mobile TV and interactive video services like chat and blogging. Video-based services represent a golden opportunity for operators to diversify their offerings and boost ARPU, but new media services present business model issues as well as technical challenges like streaming and download capabilities," said Richard Webb, directing analyst at Infonetics Research.

Service providers indicate confidence in the new services they plan to offer, with participants in the study saying they expect revenue from next gen mobile services to increase 121% on average.

Capex among respondents jumps 21% between 2006 and 2008, from an average of $2.8 billion to $3.4 billion, a sign that providers are investing heavily to continue upgrading mobile infrastructure to 3G and on toward 4G.

Report Highlights

--  Fixed mobile convergence and integrating new wireless technologies
    were the top-rated technical challenges to offering wireless broadband and
    next gen mobile services
--  75% of respondents plan to offer mobile video and mobile TV services
    by 2008 -- more than double the number offering them now
--  43% use a content aggregator for mobile video services now; this grows
    to 56% by 2008
--  IMS is far and away the lead reference architecture for packet control
    planes, with 54% already having deployed it and 92% planning to by 2008
--  Fixed WiMAX, mobile WiMAX, and HSDPA, HSUPA deployments by respondents
    all grow over the next year
--  70% currently include WiFi as part of their infrastructure, declining
    to 45% by 2008
--  Ericsson, Nokia-Siemens, and Alcatel-Lucent are the top-rated vendors
    of infrastructure for mobile networks, followed by Nortel and Cisco
    

Infonetics' study surveys service providers planning to offer next gen mobile (3G), WiFi, WiMAX/4G, and emerging wireless broadband services, and examines the impact that the IMS architecture will have on their networks.

The study was developed to help next gen mobile and wireless broadband equipment manufacturers understand the current state and strategic direction of service provider infrastructure for offering mobile and wireless broadband services, and the extent to which service providers expect to purchase products in the next year.

The study examines deployment plans, drivers, barriers, IMS and FMC strategy, subscribers, handsets, network architecture, regulatory concerns, service and application offerings, manufacturer and brand awareness, mobile and wireless broadband services revenue, expenditures for radio access networks (RAN), wireless broadband, and mobile core equipment, and more.

Download sample data at www.info.infonetics.com. For sales, contact Larry Howard, vice president, at larry@infonetics.com or +1 (408) 583-3335.

Infonetics Research (www.infonetics.com) is an international market research and consulting firm specializing in data networking and telecom. Services include market share and forecasting, end-user survey research, service provider survey research and capex analysis.

Press Contact:
Richard Webb
Directing Analyst, Wireless
Infonetics Research
+1 (408) 583-3369
Email Contact

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