Nokia Plots Leap in Global Mobile Infrastructure Market Share

Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia were the global market leaders in mobile infrastructure market share in 2014. That might still be true in 2016.

But Nokia might be far larger as it bulks up to face what some might say is a market assault by Chinese firms growing fast.

Nokia is making a serious bid to acquire Alcatel-Lucent, a move that if successful would
create a market with three leading providers of roughly equal size, suggesting even the new market structure would remain unstable for some time.

For Nokia, a completed acquisition would bring Nokia into a major supply role with both Verizon Communications and AT&T.

Nokia had roughly 17 percent market share in the mobile networks segment in 2014. Ericsson had 30 percent share and Huawei had 20 percent share.

Alcatel-Lucent had a 10 percent share, but was declining. ZTE, in fact, now has 11 percent share.

Two observations: no U.S. or Canadian firm has such weight in the mobile infrastructure business. Though Lucent and Nortel once were major U.S. and Canadian companies globally, the leaders now are European or Chinese.

And the market would still be unstable, long term. A stable market with three providers of roughly equal size is unusual, long term.