Studie - The LTE business case: finance

This report examines the finance sector's perspective on LTE and how deployments are to be financed. Our research reveals a great deal of scepticism towards LTE among the financial sector, not helped by current macroeconomic conditions.

Executive summary

In a nutshell

Key messages

Ovum view

About the LTE business case

What will it cost? Capex impact is the major worry

The 3G experience reflects poorly on LTE

Spectrum will need to be cheap

Key drivers don’t wash with investors

Opex efficiencies hard to see and only then in the longer term

After 3G, investors don’t trust top-line projections

The economic climate isn’t helping

Economic uncertainty creates greater LTE uncertainty

Finance community scepticism will dictate how LTE is financed and deployed

Vendor financing and cash are key as financial markets won’t fund LTE

Cash favours the largest players, but dictates deployment plans

Could access to finance have regulatory ramifications?

Operators must allay concerns and invest for tomorrow

Will the finance sector ever be favourable to LTE?

Preparing for the future

Competitive landscape

Legacy network status

Service strategy

Proof of demand

Capital outlay required

Cost savings

Funding capability











List of Figures

Figure 1: Percentage increase of annual capex in order to deploy LTE

Figure 2: NTT DoCoMo capital expenditure and capital intensity: FY2001—09

Figure 3: Opex movements for LTE operators

Figure 4: Impact of macroeconomic conditions on unannounced LTE commercial launches

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