The global market for telecommunications equipment is forecast to expand through 2035, with 5G mobile network rollouts and fiber-to-the-premises deployments identified as the principal growth engines in a new outlook from research firm IndexBox.

The forecast, titled "Telecom Devices Market Forecast to 2035: Growth Accelerates on 5G and Fiber Rollouts," frames the next decade as a sustained infrastructure cycle. Device replacement cycles, new broadband connections and ongoing access-network build-outs are expected to feed demand across multiple categories of operator and end-user hardware.

What does the 5G leg imply for device demand?

Mobile operators in every major region continue spending on mid-band and millimeter-wave coverage. That process requires more than radio and core-network kit. The device side of the equation — smartphones, fixed wireless access (FWA) routers, mobile hotspots, industrial gateways — sits squarely in the supply chain the forecast addresses. Each new 5G coverage milestone tends to pull forward handset upgrades, particularly as mid-range 5G chipsets reach lower price tiers.

For FWA specifically, operators have continued to scale 5G-based home broadband services, and the device ecosystem — outdoor CPE units, indoor routers and signal-boosting antennas — remains a meaningful slice of telecom hardware spending. Dense urban millimeter-wave deployments also generate orders for compatible client devices.

Why is fiber still pulling weight?

Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) programs continue across North America, Europe and parts of Asia-Pacific. The hardware implications include optical network terminals (ONTs), residential gateways with integrated Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 7 radios, and the small-form-factor pluggable optics that operators install at the distribution point. Where governments have tied broadband funding to coverage milestones, the equipment pipeline tends to be more visible and procurement cycles more predictable.

The forecast's pairing of 5G and fiber as twin drivers suggests IndexBox sees both wireless and wireline access networks as complementary rather than competing spend categories for the next decade. That framing is consistent with the capex plans of major integrated carriers, who routinely allocate budget across both domains.

What sits inside "telecom devices"?

Analysts typically group the segment into several blocks:

• Mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets and cellular-enabled laptops
• Customer-premises equipment (CPE), covering FWA, DSL, cable and fiber gateways
• Operator-side hardware, including small cells, macro radios and access-network cards
• Industrial and IoT modules

The IndexBox title points to demand-side, retail and enterprise hardware most directly exposed to consumer and SMB upgrade cycles, rather than the deep infrastructure layer.

How should the outlook be read?

The 2035 horizon is unusually long. Most telecom market research firms publish five- to seven-year outlooks. A ten-year-plus window implies IndexBox expects the current access-network capex cycle to outlast the typical handset replacement plateau and to absorb multiple generational shifts, including the eventual transition to 6G now in early standards work at 3GPP.

Whether the forecast reflects accelerating volume growth or simply an extended tail of steady expansion remains unclear from the title alone. IndexBox's regional and product breakdowns, presumably contained in the full report, will determine which segments contribute the most weight.

For operators and vendors, the headline takeaway is that the device side of telecom remains a structural growth category through the end of the next decade. The exact pace will depend on coverage obligations, spectrum auction timing and the speed of fiber subsidy programs. Those variables, taken together, will shape the next ten years of network hardware demand.