Telecom Lead India: Cisco continues to lead the global carrier Wi-Fi equipment market in 2012.

Cisco on Wednesday said its wireless revenue increased marginally to $523 million in Q3 FY 2013 from $520 million. Cisco Chairman and CEO John Chambers said that cloud, mobility and video are coming together to deliver the Internet of Everything.

The second largest player is Ruckus Wireless in the global carrier Wi-Fi equipment market in 2012

Ericsson is in the third position.

Interestingly, all the three top carrier Wi-Fi equipment vendors achieved significant year-over-year growth in the market.

Infonetics Research says carrier Wi-Fi equipment revenue, including carrier Wi-Fi access points and Wi-Fi hotspot controllers, increased 53 percent worldwide in 2012 from 2011.

“The carrier Wi-Fi space is red hot right now, driven by the explosion in demand from mobile operators using Wi-Fi to augment their 3G/4G deployments and offload a portion of mobile data traffic to unlicensed spectrum,” said Richard Webb, directing analyst for microwave and carrier WiFi at Infonetics Research.

Telecom operators are embracing Wi-Fi to offload excess data and enhance the broadband experience for users. For the long-term success of carrier Wi-Fi, though, integration with the mobile network is key.

Dual mode cellular/Wi-Fi access points began shipping in 2012 and are expected to undergo significant growth as more and more mobile operators build out carrier WiFi networks

While all world regions are experiencing robust demand for carrier Wi-Fi, Asia Pacific—especially China, Indonesia and India—will be the strongest drivers of growth through 2017.

Mobile operators are in the midst of a land-grab, rapidly claiming prime small cell locations by deploying carrier Wi-Fi and then later replacing the WiFi access points with dual mode 3G/Wi-Fi and LTE/Wi-Fi small cells.

The global carrier Wi-Fi equipment market is forecast by Infonetics to top $3.9 billion by 2017, primarily driven by mobile operators deploying carrier Wi-Fi for data offload.

In a May 10, 2012 note, Infonetics said it anticipates new players will enter the carrier Wi-Fi equipment market, disrupting early market share standings, and, with growing demand for WiFi integrated base stations from mobile operators, carrier WiFi market share could shift toward the mobile infrastructure vendors

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