The Rush to Unlicensed Radios: Providers Stake Claims

The unlicensed and shared spectrum segment of the wireless market is undergoing rapid change as new tech, spectrum, and growing competition between cable and mobile operators incentivize different service provider groups to stake their claim. In their latest report, Mobile Experts illustrates multiple ways that service providers will use the unlicensed and shared-license bands to offer low-cost wireless services.

The LTE-based carrier unlicensed radio equipment market, including LAA, CBRS, and MulteFire, is forecasted to grow quickly to over $1.6 billion in 2023, growing from just over 22 percent share of the overall Carrier Unlicensed Radio market (for mobile and nomadic applications) to over 80 percent in 2023. The Enterprise market will stay on track with Wi-Fi, but we are now starting to see a shift toward LTE in carrier investments.

Mobile operators, cable and fixed operators, and Over the Top players are all getting involved in this market as free spectrum allows them to deploy new LTE, Wi-Fi, and other options for commercial services. Mobile Experts' five-year global forecast clarifies the myriad opportunities that arise because of recent and impending evolutions in the market.

With mobile operator preference for LTE-based solutions, the standalone AP segment of the carrier unlicensed radio infrastructure market previously, solely based on Wi-Fi is expected to trend down in the near term.  Cable operators and other OTT providers like fixed wireless ISPs in rural areas will continue to adopt Wi-Fi as they transition to 802.11ax. The mobile operators will use LAA in 'hotspot' locations to increase network capacity for 'Gigabit LTE' services, and almost all of the US players are looking at investments in CBRS/OnGo infrastructure.

Growth in the LTE-based unlicensed and shared spectrum segment—like CBRS and MulteFire—will not meaningfully impact the Enterprise WLAN market. However, the introduction of LTE-based technologies such as LAA and MulteFire, and new approaches that open up spectrum under coordinated sharing like CBRS, will revolutionize the overall carrier wireless infrastructure equipment market and leverage unlicensed and shared spectrum.