3G kit selling like hot cakes

Global sales of mobility infrastructure equipment were up by $155m, or two per cent, in the third quarter of this year, due in large part to strong sales of 3G WCDMA equipment, research has revealed.

According to market watcher Dell'Oro Group, 3G equipment sales increased by $280m in the quarter, which offset revenue declines of $91m and $79m in GSM and CDMA equipment respectively.

"Service providers in Japan and Western Europe enhanced their WCDMA network capacity in the third quarter in anticipation of increased consumer demand at the end of the year," said Greg Collins, senior director of mobile infrastructure research at Dell'Oro Group.

"For example, in mid-2004 in Japan NTT DoCoMo began offering discounted, flat-rate data and content plans for its WCDMA-based FOMA network, and in November, Vodafone launched Vodafone live!, a WCDMA-based consumer service, across 13 countries, both of which are expected to increase network usage by year-end."

The top 3G infrastructure vendors by revenue were Ericsson, Nokia, NEC and Siemens.