Findings indicate a challenging year for the Radio Access Network (RAN) market in 2023, with global revenues declining by nearly $4 billion compared to the previous year. Despite these difficulties, the quarter’s results surpassed expectations, attributed partly to robust 5G deployments in China, Dell’Oro Group said.
Stefan Pongratz, Vice President for RAN market research at the Dell’Oro Group, noted that alongside challenging conditions in North America and Europe, the diminishing gap between advanced and less advanced operators in the initial phase of 5G deployment had both positive and constraining impacts on global 5G and broader RAN growth prospects.
While the RAN market exhibited signs of improvement in 2021 and 2022, progress slowed down in 2023. Major suppliers maintained their positions in the full-year RAN rankings, but revenue shares within the market showed more variability. Huawei and ZTE notably enhanced their global revenue shares, with Huawei and Nokia experiencing improvements outside of China.
The top 5 RAN suppliers based on worldwide revenues are identified as Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE, and Samsung.
Regional projections indicate minimal change, with market conditions expected to remain challenging in 2024, particularly due to difficult comparisons in India. However, the base-case scenario predicts a more moderate pace of decline for the year.
Despite the setbacks, industry analysts remain cautiously optimistic about the RAN market’s resilience and its potential for gradual recovery amidst ongoing technological advancements and market dynamics.
