SNS Research predicted 5G New Radio (NR) rollouts and deployments of heterogeneous network (HetNet) infrastructure will drive growth in network infrastructure spending through 2020, offsetting a steady decline in traditional macrocell infrastructure investments.

The market intelligence company indicated deployments of 5G NR technology and HetNet equipment for small cells, carrier Wi-Fi and distributed antenna systems will propel annual investments to $56 billion in 2020. The figure represents a 2 per cent CAGR from total spending of $53 billion in 2017, SNS stated.

US operators have publicly shared their plans for increased small cell deployments in the coming years. T-Mobile US executives said the operator plans to add 25,000 new small cells by the end of 2018. Sprint similarly announced plans to add thousands of small cells to its network using wireline infrastructure from Altice USA.

SNS Research noted an increased operator focus on Centralised RAN (C-RAN) architecture is also part of the growth trend. The company previously forecast operators would invest nearly $9 billion in C-RAN infrastructure by the end of this year, and tipped the market to expand at a CAGR of around 24 per cent through 2020.