RAN market continues decline

At the same time, pockets of the market are performing better, with three out of the six tracked regions growing, up from one region in 1Q 2024.

“Even if the RAN market is still down at a double-digit rate in the first half, the second quarter offered some glimmer of hope that the nadir of this cycle with double-digit declines might now be in the past for the time being,” says Dell’Oro vp Stefan Pongratz, “this does not change the fact that the RAN market is expected to decline at a 2 percent CAGR over the next five years. But the pace of the decline should moderate somewhat going forward”.

Total RAN revenues were mostly in line with expectations.

Strong growth in North America and stable trends in China were not enough to offset steep declines in the Asia Pacific region, partly driven by sharp drops in India.

Vendor rankings are mostly unchanged. The top 5 RAN suppliers based on worldwide revenues are Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE, and Samsung.

Relative to 2023, Huawei’s 1H 2024 revenue share is up, ZTE is stable, and Nokia/Ericsson are together down 3 to 4 percentage points.

Short-term RAN projections are mostly unchanged since the 5-year forecast update. Global RAN is expected to decline 8 percent to 12 percent outside of China.