Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • 3D CAD
    • Electronics • electrical
    • Fastening & Joining
    • Factory automation
    • Linear Motion
    • Motion Control
    • Test & Measurement
    • Sensors
    • Fluid power
  • Learn
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
    • Engineering Week
    • Future of Design Engineering
    • MC² Motion Control Classrooms
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • LEAP AWARDS
  • Leadership
    • 2022 Voting
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guide Library
  • Resources
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Women in Engineering
  • Supplier Listings

MoffettNathanson: Verizon Can’t Go It Alone on Small Cell Build

By Diana Goovaerts | May 15, 2017

Share

Anyone who’s been paying attention to the wireless industry has heard relentlessly about small cells in recent months (or what feels like years!) as carriers step up their densification efforts ahead of 5G.

IHS Markit recently noted small cell shipments were up 43 percent in 2016, with North America accounting for the second highest number of those shipments. The market is only expected to continue to grow as carrier deployments accelerate, with Mobile Experts forecasting revenue from small cells overall will experience a 17 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2022. In the carrier and enterprise segments, the growth rate is expected to be nearly double that figure, at 30 percent. By the end of Mobile Experts’ forecast period in 2022, small cell revenue is expected to hit $4.5 billion.

But who’s building what stateside?

While some operators have decided to hold their cards close to their chest, others have opted to throw out a few figures. T-Mobile CTO Neville Ray, for example, said during a recent earnings call the Un-carrier already has around 15,000 small cells built, with contracts to build 25,000 small cells in its pipeline. 

Verizon’s small cell plans are also ambitious, and include the carrier’s desire to complete most of the supporting fiber build itself. But MoffettNathanson analysts on Monday expressed skepticism that Big Red has the “financial capacity to do so in more than a relatively small portion of the country.” As the firm noted, “building wired networks is an expensive proposition.”

“We don’t believe Verizon will be able to undertake all of the work it is describing itself,” MoffettNathanson analysts wrote. “The company will have no choice but to use an all-of-the-above approach given the very real financial, engineering, and time-to-market constraints it will face, a reality that will also apply to Verizon’s wireless peers.”

Using Verizon’s activity in Boston to extrapolate cost figures, MoffettNathanson pegged the price tag to build fiber coverage to just the top 15 percent most populated areas in the country at some $30 billion. And that, the firm said, doesn’t include billions more in annual infrastructure rental costs, maintenance, etc.

That leaves even a titan operator like Verizon in the position of having to partner up, the firm said.

“Verizon’s capital budget dwarfs that of the players we think of as natural partners, like Zayo, so it’s natural that Verizon will rely on itself more than anyone else,” MoffettNathanson analysts concluded. “But the reality is that it won’t be able to afford building the perfect network in each and every geography where it would prefer to do so, and will have to accept other solutions that are more cost-effective in many circumstances.”


Filed Under: Infrastructure

 

Related Articles Read More >

Do Sensors Make Infrastructure Safer?
Crawling Robots and Flying Drones May Help Missouri’s Bridges
Viasat and Facebook Collaborate to Expand Internet Connectivity in Rural Mexico
Smartphone-Based System to Monitor America’s Crumbling Infrastructure

DESIGN GUIDE LIBRARY

“motion

Enews Sign Up

Motion Control Classroom

Design World Digital Edition

cover

Browse the most current issue of Design World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading design engineering magazine today.

EDABoard the Forum for Electronics

Top global problem solving EE forum covering Microcontrollers, DSP, Networking, Analog and Digital Design, RF, Power Electronics, PCB Routing and much more

EDABoard: Forum for electronics

Sponsored Content

  • Pushing performance: Adding functionality to terminal blocks
  • Get to Know Würth Industrial Division
  • Renishaw next-generation FORTiS™ enclosed linear encoders offer enhanced metrology and reliability for machine tools
  • WAGO’s smartDESIGNER Online Provides Seamless Progression for Projects
  • Epoxy Certified for UL 1203 Standard
  • The Importance of Industrial Cable Resistance to Chemicals and Oils

Design World Podcasts

June 12, 2022
How to avoid over engineering a part
See More >
Engineering Exchange

The Engineering Exchange is a global educational networking community for engineers.

Connect, share, and learn today »

Design World
  • Advertising
  • About us
  • Contact
  • Manage your Design World Subscription
  • Subscribe
  • Design World Digital Network
  • Engineering White Papers
  • LEAP AWARDS

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search Design World

  • Home
  • Technologies
    • 3D CAD
    • Electronics • electrical
    • Fastening & Joining
    • Factory automation
    • Linear Motion
    • Motion Control
    • Test & Measurement
    • Sensors
    • Fluid power
  • Learn
    • Ebooks / Tech Tips
    • Engineering Week
    • Future of Design Engineering
    • MC² Motion Control Classrooms
    • Podcasts
    • Videos
    • Webinars
  • LEAP AWARDS
  • Leadership
    • 2022 Voting
    • 2021 Winners
  • Design Guide Library
  • Resources
    • 3D Cad Models
      • PARTsolutions
      • TraceParts
    • Digital Issues
      • Design World
      • EE World
    • Women in Engineering
  • Supplier Listings