A survey of 678 telecom industry professionals conducted at NXTcomm in Chicago this week by Tellabs and Telephony magazine found that a whopping 96% of respondents believe that network infrastructure spending will increase during the second half of the year.

Within that figure, about 47% of service providers said they believe spending will increase by 8% to 10%, while vendors, perhaps girding themselves against the hype, are less optimistic. Only 31% of supplier respondents said they thought that kind of growth is possible.

The survey also indicated that many respondents believe 2007 is “the year of mobile video,” according to statement from Tellabs regarding the results. More than 54% say mobile video is driving growth now or will within one year. Carrier respondents again were much more optimistic than suppliers -- 64% agree, compared with only 51% of vendors.

Regarding other technology trends, about 78% of respondents see IPTV driving significant growth within three years. Also, 51% of respondents see the convergence of wireless and wireline networks happening within two years – sooner than expected.

“The survey confirms that users are driving the release of new video services such as mobile video and IPTV, and service providers will invest to meet that demand,” said Steve McCarthy, Tellabs executive vice president, global sales and service, in the statement.

The survey was conducted on June 19-20 at NXTcomm, and full survey results will be available in the July 9 issue of Telephony magazine.