Sales of test equipment are often a bell weather for a sector, acting as surrogate markers for future investment and deployment. This has long been the case for the mobile industry and applies more than ever now as the 5G era gets underway. This year the Covid-19 pandemic has added an extra dimension and invited closer scrutiny of results and reports from test and measurement companies in the field. The latest such feedback has come from German test systems firm Rohde & Schwarz (R&S), which being privately held does not have to report results but has just let slip that its revenues were up 20% over the last 12 months for the third year in a row to scale €2.58bn.…