The market grew 4% last year, driven primarily by growth in the BRIC countries’ (Brazil, Russia, India and China) mobile markets. This is a positive result compared to the losses made in 2009 when revenue fell by 4%.
The report notes that average profitability showed positive signs when measured against operating cash flow and net profit margins, EBITDA and net debt.
The EMEA region generated the greatest amount of revenue in 2010 reaching $698 billion but showed a small year-on-year growth from the 2009 figure of $697 billion. Asia-Pacific saw the greatest revenue growth reaching $464 billion in 2010 compared to $423 billion in 2009.
Service provider capex declined by 3% in 2010 but was an improvement from the 9% decline in 2009. In the final quarter of 2010, carrier capex increased by 2% compared to the same quarter in 2009. South and Central America (SCA) saw significant year-on-year capex growth of 13% in the final quarter of 2010 and is predicted to grow more in 2011.
The majority of the larger vendors saw top-line year-on-year growth for the fourth quarter of 2010 with best performances seen from ZTE and Juniper with 40% and 26% respectively. Other big players such as Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson grew 13% and 11% respectively.
