Telecom Lead Asia: Top 10 telecom operators in terms of
Capex spending in 2011 are AT&T, Verizon, China Mobile, China Telecom,
China Unicom, NTT, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Vodafone, and FT. Indian
operators such as Bharti Airtel, Aircel, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications
and BSNL are not top in the top 10 operator list.
Ovum said among the top 10 Capex spenders are two from
North America (AT&T, Verizon), China’s three big carriers, NTT, and four
European operators with multinational operations (DT, Telefonica, Vodafone, and
FT).
Economic worries caused budget cuts late in the year,
hitting SP Capex. Overall for 2011, Capex grew 9 percent to $306 billion, due
to double-digit percentage growth in the first three quarters; Capex declined 1
percent year-over-year in Q4 2011.
Global SP capital intensity or Capex divided by revenues
was 16.0 percent for 2011, also in line with our forecast. Ovum expects the
rate to eventually edge towards 15 percent over the next 5 years.
In MEA, actual revenues and Capex were 10 and 7 percent
lower than expected, respectively. This is due partly to political volatility
at year-end which affected some carriers’ expansion plans. North America’s
revenues were 2 percent above forecast, though weak Q4 Capex by Verizon and
Sprint pushed 2011 Capex down 4 percent below forecast.
Signs have emerged in 2012 of a slowly improving
economy, and further improvement should help reach the revenue goal and Capex
growth targets of 3 and 6 per cent respectively,” said Matt Walker, principal
analyst in Ovum’s Networks practice.
Thanks to a recovery in both fixed and mobile sectors,
service provider revenues passed the $1.91 trillion mark in 2011, compared to
US$1.79 trillion in 2010.
Chinese telecom operator Capex increases 16% to $46 billion in
2011
Recently, Wireless Intelligence said the telecom capital
expenditure of Chinese service providers has gone up to $45.71 billion in 2011
from $39.397 billion in 2010, clocking 16 percent growth. However, telecom
Capex in 2011 is lower than their capital expenditure in 2009. In 2009, telecom
operators spent $47.39 billion for adding wireline and wireless infrastructure.
