According to a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group, both Open RAN and virtualized RAN (vRAN) revenues declined in 2Q23, marking the first quarter of year-over-year contractions since the firm began tracking these next-generation architectures back in 2019.
“After a couple of years where Open RAN revenues exceeded expectations and advanced at an accelerated pace, the current slowdown doesn't come as a surprise,” said Stefan Pongratz, vice president with the Dell’Oro Group. “Projections for 2023 were more tempered, considering that it would take time for the early majority operators to balance out the more challenging comparisons with the early adopters who fueled the initial Open RAN wave. This is the trend we are witnessing now — growth decelerated in the first quarter and declined in the second quarter,” continued Pongratz.
Additional Open RAN and vRAN highlights from the 2Q 2023 RAN report:
- In Europe, Open RAN revenues are on the uptick, but this was insufficient to offset the declines in Asia Pacific and North America.
- The vendor landscape remains mixed, as many Open RAN-focused suppliers are not thriving as they had hoped. NEC experienced a material improvement in its Open RAN market share between 2022 and 1H23, whereas Mavenir's Open RAN revenue share declined over the same period.
- The top 4 Open RAN suppliers by revenue for the 1H23 period were Samsung, NEC, Fujitsu and Rakuten Symphony.
- Open RAN revenues are still expected to account for 5 to 10 percent of the 2023 RAN market.
Dell’Oro Group’s RAN Quarterly Report offers a complete overview of the RAN industry, with tables covering manufacturers’ and market revenue for multiple RAN segments including 5G NR sub-6 GHz, 5G NR mmWave, LTE, macro base stations and radios, small cells, massive MIMO, Open RAN and vRAN. The report also tracks the RAN market by region and includes a four-quarter outlook.