Since the great telecom crash of March 2000, the telecom industry has become cyclical, which is typical of deregulated industries: investment goes through cycles of ups and downs that are more or less pronounced depending on how the major players react. After touching the bottom in 2004, we went through a first investment cycle that peaked in 2008, after which a short-lived downturn occurred, ending in 2010. 2011 marked the first year of a second investment cycle that ended in 2015. Since then, capex has been flat or slightly decreasing when removing forex noise, and despite the need for capital to build the 5G infrastructure, 2020 won’t be any different. I’ve been saying this since the beginning of the 5G discussion, which started at the beginning of this past decade when 4G LTE took off. Clients, please log in to view the full content.
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