Worldwide mobile operator infrastructure spend will see “opposing forces from different regional markets” this year, according to a study from ABI Research.

In North America, capital expenditure will grow 2.1 percent to US$13.4 billion, which was attributed to the accelerated rollout of LTE equipment by operators including AT&T, Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile.

Contrastingly, capital expenditure in Western Europe will fall by 1.1 percent, due to maturing networks and continued economic uncertainty.

Asia-Pacific has “LTE hotspots”. While South Korea and Japan are rapidly acquiring LTE subscribers, China has yet to award LTE licences.

In South East Asia, some markets are starting to see some traction in LTE, while India has awarded some TD-LTE licences – although in this country the lack of handsets and high tariffs have kept subscriber growth “in check”.

Eastern Europe is also likely to see “reasonable” growth in capex – 2.4 percent – reflecting LTE rollouts by operators, as well as 3G capacity buildouts as 3G subscriber growth continues.

For the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, there will be some growth in capital expenditure, in the 1 percent to 3 percent range.

Voice-based coverage is largely complete in these regions, and some operators are addressing 3G in-fill and mobile data capacity challenges – but these markets have not seen the data crunch experienced elsewhere.