2016 DAS capex forecast $19 billion (iGR report)

From RCR Wireless

iGR report projects that five year 2016 U.S. DAS capex will exceed $19 billion while U.S. DAS capex and opex spending will exceed $23 billion

2016 DAS capex forecast will be driven by commercial buildings and multi-dwelling units (MDU) as stadium, hospitality and convention venues near the end of a multi-year DAS upgrade cycle. Declining total cost of deploying DAS due to technology advances coupled with continued carrier delays with securing small cell network right-of-ways will fuel smaller building and venue DAS deployments.

More specifically, overall cost of deploying DAS in smaller commercial office buildings and MDUs is decreasing because carriers are plugging fiber fed, digital remote radio units (Distributed Radio Systems – DRS) directly into a centralized DAS array, thus eliminating the need for power attenuation boards to power down, then power up high power radio signals. In addition, carriers and neutral host providers will be leveraging existing DAS building headends along with base station hotels to centrally serve multiple buildings. Using a centralized approach, however, will require significant fiber assets.

Read the entire article at RCRWireless