The International Data Corporation (IDC) has found that the wired router market in Australia recorded a 31 per cent year-on-year revenue decline in the 2016 second quarter amid the completion of service provider network upgrades meeting 4G-LTE demand.
While the decline was driven by decreased service provider spend, the IDC stated that it would have been more pronounced were it not for significant first-half spending on high-end service provider routers (classified by the IDC as having a list price greater than US$20,000) to remedy unscheduled network outages.
Meanwhile, the IDC found that enterprise sales were stagnant, with growth tempered in the first half by the federal election, with projects being put on hold.
Cisco leads the wired router space in terms of revenue, with Juniper and Nokia competing for the runner-up position.
“The dramatic decline does not necessarily indicate an irreversible market contraction, but the completion of core network upgrades,” IDC market analyst Ahmar Karimullah commented.
“We fully expect to see the router market rebound heading towards 2020 with the deployment of 5G by all the mobile carriers, an inevitable less-constrained NBN and signaled network investment by the likes of Telstra.
“Elections always see projects put on hold, so we expect a buoyant second half of the year in the enterprise space as spending catches up.”
