3G license to drive demand for wireless test equipment in China

September 27, 2006

Considering the imminent Olympics 2008 in Beijing, issuing of 3G licenses to ensure high-speed mobile networks is probable this year. This is likely to drive demand in the wireless test and measurement equipment.

New analysis from Frost and Sullivan, Chinese Wireless Test and Measurement Equipment Markets, reveals that the market earned revenues of $197.7 million in 2005 and is likely to reach $606.2 million in 2012.

The Chinese government is set to further the growth of 3G technology in China by fostering a robust domestic telecommunications industry. This can lead to tremendous investment in the telecom market and benefit both 3G terminal equipment makers and IT vendors.

3G technology standards including time division-synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) is likely to be the market leader, especially since current wireless communication networks are beginning to support these recent technologies. This is encouraging equipment manufacturers, service providers and consumers to invest in the promising wireless test and measurement equipment market.

There is increasing demand for mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and advanced electronic communication devices. These support broad applications such as gaming, multimedia messaging, e-mails, faxes, voicemails and streaming video. Customers are also demanding enhanced graphic functionalities, greater battery life and error-free reception of data transmitted over the network. This offers opportunities for testing at both the physical and application layers of these devices thereby, strengthening demand in the wireless testing and measurement equipment market.

"Growing network demands call for greater capacity, increased bandwidth and higher throughput in network systems," notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst David Ren. "Test equipment manufacturers or service providers need to constantly evolve their products and services to meet these demands and keep pace with the developments in the wireless communication industry."

Development of technologies such as universal UMTS, EDGE and wideband (W) CDMA was to meet these networks' demands.

However, the rapidly evolving technologies and standards create a unique challenge for manufacturers. As data, voice and video services converge in the networks, their testing and measurement is becoming more complex.

"Vendors need to enhance test equipment's capability to integrate physical and protocol layer level testing for multiple standards, interfaces and protocols in a single instrument," says Ren.

End users are expecting their test equipment to have a long shelf life and a platform to which they can add other hardware and software modules when new technologies are developed. Manufacturers can retain customers by designing test equipment that is scaleable and easily upgradeable for retaining customers.

The Chinese Wireless Test and Measurement Equipment Markets is part of the Test and Measurement subscription, which also includes research in the following markets: world fiber optic test equipment (FOTE), world IP video test and measurement and world mechanical test equipment. All research services included in subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends evaluated following extensive interviews with market participants.