The structured cabling market is growing across the world, and it has been for some time. This growth is partially fueled by the consistent growth in demand for internet access. Not only are smartphones, laptops and tablets widely used devices, but many other devices are becoming “smart,” whether it’s a washing machine or a refrigerator. All of these additional smart devices need bandwidth, too.
As high-speed internet networks expand rapidly, especially in south-central Asia, the U.S., China, and other major IT and telecom markets, and the number of data centers increases across the world, the structured cabling market is expected to continue strong growth through 2023. Developing countries are contributing to this growth as well, as some are offering major opportunities for IT support vendors in structured cabling.
IT support vendors looking to expand operations must stay up-to-date on this increasing momentum. As local and national cabling markets grow in several regions of the world, new opportunities will arise.
The Role of Structured Cabling in the New Technological Global Order
The IT and communications optimization initiatives that are emerging in developed and developing regions are creating demand for high-efficiency cabling solutions. As the world moves toward being fully digitally enabled with centralized control and remote access, it further increases the number of structured cabling initiatives:
- Organizations are prioritizing the reduced IT maintenance costs offered by today's structured cabling.
- Industries like communications and business technologies, smart homes, and cloud-based software companies all have a high need for bandwidth, and structured cabling allows for that implementation.
- Businesses are looking to upgrade their IT infrastructure to better support video conferencing, VoIP services, and the other video and audio applications they use daily.
- Today’s modern IT infrastructure dictates a system that can support plenty of data, which is something structured cabling can provide.
Overview of the Global Structured Cabling Market
Reports by both Market Watch (2018) and P&S Intelligence of their most recent global cabling market studies have revealed some rather exciting trends that are expected to continue through the following five years. In 2017, the market was valued at $7.6 billion. It's predicted to realize a 5.5% CAGR from 2018 to 2023.
The sole impediment to even faster growth of the structured cabling market continues to be the volatility of copper prices. Because copper enables the transfer of electrical signals between connectors, it is one of the primary raw materials needed in structured cabling. Therefore, the overall price instability of the copper industry naturally impacts the overall growth of the market.
Structured Cabling Global Market Segmentation
The worldwide structured cabling market is segmented by region, application, product type, and wire category:
- Regions — North America, Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe, and other regions
- APAC took the largest market share in 2017. All three regions, as well as China, India, Brazil, and the African and Latin American markets, are also expected to undergo major cabling industry growth in the next years.
- Industries — IT, telecommunications, commercial, industrial, BFSI, government, automotive, defense, education, and residential
- Telecom held a significant market share largely due to new high-speed technologies and services, and widespread infrastructure expansion.
- Applications — WAN, LAN, data center
- Structured cabling for LAN accounted for the largest share of the market in 2017. The data center category is predicted to realize greater CAGR over the coming years, because of increasing maintenance costs, large power consumption, and carbon emissions associated with the use of traditional cabling.
- Product Types — Copper cable and components, fiber cable and components, coaxial cable
- Copper accounted for the largest share of structured cabling revenues in 2017, but fiber cable is expected to see increased CAGR over the next years, as demand grows for optimally reliable networks, low attenuation, and strong security.
- Wire Categories — 5e, 6, 6a, 7 and others
Growth of Regional Markets
Global trends aren’t the only important thing for companies and professionals in this industry to watch. Keeping an eye on growing regional trends is also important, as each market is expanding.
North America — The North American structured cabling market is growing from the increasing demand for cloud and colocation services, hosting, building automation, and other forms of advanced functionality that constitute the IoT. As e-commerce continues to grow, cloud resources are expanding and becoming more popular across industries, from education to banking to healthcare, which in turn increases the need for bandwidth.
APAC — Through 2023, market growth in structured cabling in the APAC region is expected to realize the most rapid growth across the global structured cabling market. Continuing broad-scale projects for the development of new data centers and expansion of IT and telecommunications infrastructure throughout China, large urban and suburban areas of the Indian subcontinent, and elsewhere in the APAC region indicate strong cabling industry growth.
IT Support Vendor Opportunity with Kinettix
We are looking to expand our structured cabling support to our multinational corporate IT and telecommunications customers. Kinettix is looking for IT support vendors for structured cabling to help meet our needs. For more information about becoming a member of our global network of IT services vendors, call us at (888) 397-0086, or visit our Global Alliance page to learn more.
