Wireless Network Test Equipment Market

The Wireless network test equipment market is projected to grow from USD 3.2 billion in 2018 to USD 4.7 billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 8.0% from 2018 to 2023.

Wireless network uses wireless data connections between network nodes with the help of various devices such as mobile, computer, and other systems. The increasing number of subscribers affect the network quality, which would, in turn, require network testing to solve the issues of interference and congestion. Wireless network testing uses drive test, monitoring, and crowdsourcing, along with related test equipment such as analyzers, base station equipment, and probes. These equipment are used by network engineers and operators for measuring the functionality.

Wireless Network Test Equipment Market Forecast to 2023

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2G/3G/4G and 5G network technologies uses wireless network test equipment for testing networks. The 5G network technology of the wireless network test equipment market is projected to grow significantly in the next 3 to 5 years.

In the wireless network test equipment market, the test equipment plays an important role in managing and optimizing the entire network. The equipment type studied in this report include drive test equipment, crowdsourcing equipment, site testing equipment, OSS with geolocation equipment, monitoring equipment, and SON testing equipment.
Wireless network test equipment has long been an integral part of various cellular wireless networks across the world. End users, including enterprises, and telecommunication service providers are said to be adopting wireless network test equipment to improve their network performance, optimize their infrastructure, and minimize complexity in their networks. The enterprise segment is expected to grow at a higher CAGR of 8.5% during the forecast period.

Investments in the wireless network test equipment ecosystem have been increasing drastically during the period 2016-2018. The ecosystem players are adopting organic and inorganic growth startegies such as product launches and developments, partnerships, agreements, contracts, etc. to strengthen their position in the wireless network test equipment market.

The wireless network test equipment market is competitive owing to the easy availability of competitive products from several players, including mid-tier and large companies such as market Anritsu (Japan), Infovista (US), Keysight Technologies (US), Rohde & Schwarz (Germany), VIAVI Solutions (US), Accuver (US), Dingli Corporation (China), Empirix (US), EXFO (US), Spirent (UK), and TEOCO (US).

Wireless Network Test Equipment Market Dynamics:

Driver: Growing mobile data coupled with increasing adoption of smart devices

Increasing mobile subscribers are consuming a large amount of data; with the advent of 4G, the need is sufficiently fulfilled. As per the GSMA Intelligence Data December 2017, the total number of subscribers worldwide stood 5,097 million and is expected to reach 5,869 million by 2025. However, the current technologies cannot keep up with the increased data requirement and data traffic due to its capacity bands. This leads to the need for regular testing of the network to fix the issues of congestion and interference during a voice call, video call, and data transfer.

Furthermore, there is an increased trend of smart devices, such as smartphones, and data sharing in the IoT-based connectivity arena. Smart devices have revolutionized the way customers, enterprises, and communication service providers interact with business processes. They have enabled automation and brought efficiency and agility in business processes in a simpler way. The increase in smartphone penetration has led to the sharing of large amounts of personal and private data across multiple platforms leading to mobile data traffic via various wireless cellular networks such as 3G, 4G, and upcoming 5G. Wireless network testing equipment and solutions are instrumental in ensuring that the devices connected and integrated into the network are working effectively and providing quality of service. Network testing equipment and solutions have helped companies track devices’ and network performance, monitor data, detect any unauthorized access, and reduce interference in the network.

Restraint: Drive testing is labor-intensive activity

Drive test is used to optimize mobile networks with the help of a mobile vehicle equipped with testing equipment. There are certain problems associated with the drive test owing to which minimization of drive test (MDT) has become a major factor restraining the wireless network test equipment market growth. One of the major problems of drive test is to locate an area without test signals to build a new cellular tower. It is time-consuming to locate such an area using analyzers and perform other related tasks. The drive tests are required to perform at any place including rural, urban, and unpopulated areas, which, in turn, adds to fuel and maintenance cost of the vehicle. The equipment required for drive test includes a laptop with software, GPS device, and cellphones of different networks to be tested. The tester has to check the test equipment continuously to make sure the performance is as expected. This task requires two people—a driver and a technician. If the driver alone performs all the tasks, including testing and driving, there are chances that the collected data might not be accurate leading to perform the whole test once again. This acts as a major restraining factor for the market.

Opportunity: Investments in R&D and positive outcomes from testing phase of 5G network

5G refers to the next-generation mobile wireless standard, and this next-generation wireless communication technology is still under development. However, many instrument suppliers are ready to test 5G in trial deployments; these 5G equipment are likely to be commercialized by 2020. In the R&D stage, there is a high demand for network test equipment as they play a vital role during the designing and testing phases of 5G network and devices. Growing developments in 5G technology increase the demand for mobile data services, propel the growth of machine-to-machine (M2M) communication in industries, and increase the demand for high speed and large network coverage, which is likely to further escalate the demand for network test equipment in the near future. By 2021, several major countries such as the US, Japan, South Korea, the UK, Germany, and China are expected to develop and deploy 5G wireless communications platform. This would significantly increase the number of mobile subscribers, thereby creating a requirement for a developed infrastructure with high connectivity.

Networking companies are heavily investing in the R&D of networking solutions, with a focus on long-term value creation. Based on the fluctuations in short-term business performance and financial results, the leading networking companies have not reduced their investment for innovating and testing networking solutions. For instance, since 2009, Huawei has been investing heavily in R&D for the development of 5G, and it has achieved positive results in the second phase of the 5G test. Moreover, networking companies have been collaborating with other companies for continuously developing and testing networking solutions. For instance, in 2015, Intel and Verizon formed a collaboration to accelerate the development of 5G. In this collaboration, Intel contributed to the development of 5G requirements and standards, and conducted 5G testing. These continuous investments and positive outcomes are expected to further fuel the growth of the network testing market.

Challenge: Lack of skilled workforce to infer insights from collected data

The expected increase in working efficiency and data dependency of processes on a wireless network would lead to the requirement of new employee skill sets for testing the network. This could create a skill gap between new workers and trained workers. Companies these days are dynamic about adopting new technologies and, at the same time, are facing a shortage of highly skilled and proficient workforce. Although the testing process of communication technology is easy and does not require technical knowledge, the issue still persists with the insights gained from the collected data after testing. A few testers rely on their instincts and experiences to judge the condition of network technology, which is not always a reliable option.

There may be instances wherein the operator can overrule the analysis based on their personal experiences or due to the lack of trust in the prediction capabilities of testing technology. Due to mistakes such as dropped metrics, service outages, and unreliable alerting signals provided by the testing process, experienced operators are at times skeptical about the diagnostics and predictions provided by this system. Also, there are chances that new workers lack the knowledge to understand the condition and do not infer the correct insights from the collected data, which hampers the whole network testing process.

Wireless Network Test Equipment Market Segment Insights:

Based on Network Technology, 5G technology segment to grow at a higher CAGR during forecast period

Fifth generation (5G) mobile network is the anticipated next telecommunications standards. The technology is expected to bring new unique network and service capabilities. It would ensure user experience continuity in challenging situations such as high mobility and thickly populated areas. Moreover, 5G is likely to be a key enabler for IoT, which would provide a platform to connect a massive number of sensors, devices, and actuators with strict energy and transmission constraints for the connected devices. owing to this, the 5G segment is expected to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period.

Based on End User, the telecommunications service provider segment to dominate the wireless network test equipment market during the forecast period

The market for telecommunications service providers is expected to have a larger size as these end users need to ensure the performance of wireless technologies and demonstrate quality and accessibility prior to wireless network rollout. Moreover, telecommunications service providers, across all regions, focus on the quality of distribution rather than the price; therefore, QoS policies are of utmost importance for service providers as they need to maintain a competitive edge for consistent distribution of services.

Regional Insights:

The Asia Pacific region is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period

The APAC region is experiencing the highest growth in the wireless network test equipment market due to factors such as stable economy of APAC countries, growth of the terminal product (such as smartphones) market, and continuous introduction and commercial use of next-generation telecommunications standards. The growth in this region is also driven by the huge population, rising disposable incomes, and strong penetration of the advanced mobile devices in several Asian countries.

Wireless Network Test Equipment Market by Region

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Key Market Players:

Some of the major players in the wireless network test equipment market Anritsu (Japan), Infovista (US), Keysight Technologies (US), Rohde & Schwarz (Germany), VIAVI Solutions (US), Accuver (US), Dingli Corporation (China), Empirix (US), EXFO (US), Spirent (UK), and TEOCO (US). These players have adopted various growth strategies such as product launches and developments, agreements, partnerships, acquisitions, and contracts to further expand their presence in the wireless network test equipment market.

Rohde & Schwarz develops, produces, and markets a wide range of electronic testing equipment for industries, infrastructure operators, and government customers. It has its presence in more than 70 countries with strong sales and distribution network. The company is a leading supplier in the mobile and wireless communications sector, offering a wide portfolio of T&M instruments and systems for development, production, and testing of components and consumer devices, as well as for setting up and monitoring mobile networks. The company adopted strategies such as product development and collaboration. This will allow it to stay at the top position in the competition. For instance, in October 2017, the company launched R&S ZNL network analyzer and R&S FPL1000 spectrum analyzer to offer flexible solutions for most important RF measurements.

Keysight Technologies delivered a strong operational and financial performance, working to transform the company for sustained growth and create value for its shareholders. The company made 2 key acquisitions, namely, Anite and Ixia, to support its growth initiatives. The company’s key strategies are product launches and development by introducing new customer solutions and expanding its leadership position in electronic design and test software. In February 2018, the company successfully conducted the inter-operability testing of Keysight's User Equipment (UE) Emulation Solution and Samsung's new 5G base station based on 5G New Radio (NR) standards. Keysight and Samsung have agreed to align their plans to enable 5G base station testing and build an ecosystem of interoperable products. Owing to its technical advantage, in August 2017, the company received a contract from China Mobile Terminals. As per partnership, it will use Keysight’s cellular-IoT RF/RRM test solution for Cellular-IoT (C-IoT) chipset and module certification; as a result, it can tap unexplored regions to expand its business worldwide.

Anritsu is a leading provider of products in the fields of communication, networking, and testing. It has a wide variety of products, which are specifically used in the Test & Measurement segment. The company gains a major portion of its revenue through this segment. Moreover, Anritsu focuses on R&D, which helps the company maintain its competitiveness in the market. For instance, in 2017, the company invested 11.8% of total revenue in R&D expenses.

The company relies on product developments and collaborations to expand its business in this segment. For instance, in September 2018, it introduced ACCESS Master MT9085 series of handheld testers that provide accuracy in terms of results and broad measurement capability during the installation and maintenance of fiber optic cable in LTE and 5G backhaul, as well as Metro and Core networks.

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Scope of the Report

In this report, the overall wireless network test equipment market has been segmented into equipment type, network technology, end user, and geography.

Wireless Network Test Equipment Market, By Equipment Type:

• Drive Test Equipment
• Crowdsourcing Equipment
• Monitoring Equipment
• OSS with Geolocation Equipment
• SON Testing Equipment
• Site Testing Equipment

Wireless Network Test Equipment Market, By Network Technology

• 2G/3G/4G
• 5G

Wireless Network Test Equipment Market, By End User

• Telecommunication Service Providers
• Enterprises

Wireless Network Test Equipment Market, By Geography

• North America
  • US
  • Canada
  • Mexico
• Europe
  • Germany
  • UK
  • France
  • Rest of Europe
• Asia Pacific (APAC)
  • China
  • Japan
  • India
  • Rest of APAC
• Rest of the World (RoW)
  • South America
  • Middle East & Africa

Wireless Network Test Equipment Market Highlights:

Recent Developments

• In September 2018, Anritsu unveiled its Radio Communication Test System MT8000A at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) Americas 2018 in Los Angeles, September 12–14. The introduction of the MT8000A expands Anritsu’s 5G test portfolio and reaffirms the company’s commitment to providing efficient and accurate solutions for the successful rollout of 5G NR.
• In April 2018, Empirix signed a 3-year contract with a tier 1 North American telecom operator for USD 19 million. Empirix was selected to improve the quality of performance for the operator's mobile voice, VoWiFi, and VoLTE networks to score and increase customer experience satisfaction and reduce OpEx related to MTTR.
• In February 2018, Keysight Technologies announced the successful inter-operability testing of Keysight's User Equipment (UE) Emulation Solution and Samsung's new 5G base station based on 5G New Radio (NR) standards. Keysight and Samsung have agreed to align their plans to enable 5G base station testing and build an ecosystem of interoperable products.
• In March 2018, VIAVI Solutions acquired AvComm and Wireless Test and Measurement businesses of Cobham plc (Cobham T&M). It acquired Cobham T&M for all-cash consideration of USD 455 million, subject to certain customary closing adjustments.
• In April 2017, Accuver launched a cloud-based drive testing management system called XRO to its series of drive test tools. XRO is designed specifically to automate the testing and analysis tasks during an LTE network rollout. XRO was developed based on the company’s experience in helping a major wireless carrier in India launch an LTE network with thousands of cell sites.

Key Benefits of the Report/Reason to Buy:

The report would help key players/new entrants in this market in the following ways.

• This report segments the wireless network test equipment market comprehensively and provides the closest approximations of the overall market size and that of the subsegments across different industry and regions.
• The report would help stakeholders understand the pulse of the market and provide them with information on key drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities.
• This report would help stakeholders understand their competitors better and gain more insights to enhance their position in the market. The competitive landscape section includes competitor ecosystem, product launches and developments, agreements, partnerships, acquisitions, and contracts carried out in the market in the recent past.

Target Audience:

• Government and research organizations
• Telecommunication service providers
• Mobile device manufacturers
• Network equipment manufacturer
• Providers of wireless network test equipment
• Research organizations and consulting companies
• System integrators
• Technology investors
• Technology standard organizations, forums, alliances, and associations

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