The 5G Core market is demonstrating strong growth which looks set to continue into 2021. This is one of the findings of a new report from Dell’Oro Group, which has forecast revenues for the market to approach $1bn this year, with continued expansion next year as service providers ramp-up deployments.

“This is the first quarter vendors started to report 5G Core revenues, and revenues came in surprisingly strong,” commented David Bolan, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “Huawei and ZTE led the charge, making them the first and second-ranked vendors for 5GC in 2Q20. Mavenir also surprised with 5GC revenues. The ramp-up in the second half of 2020 has already begun, with T-Mobile commercially launching its 5G standalone network in August, recognizing Cisco and Nokia, as their 5GC suppliers.”

Bolan said other service providers are expected to launch nationwide 5G standalone networks in the second half of 2020, including three service providers in China which have named Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson and Nokia as their 5GC suppliers. He also pointed to South Korean service providers which will use Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung as their predominant 5GC suppliers.

In a separate report by Dell’Oro Group, worldwide sales of Virtualized Open RAN technologies have been forecast to grow at double-digit rates over the next five years. Cumulative Open RAN investments – including hardware, software, and firmware excluding services – are projected to surpass $5bn over the period.

“At a first glance it might appear overly optimistic to think that a new technology, which remains relatively untested and which some believe would need a decade to get off the ground, would be able to become a billion-dollar market comprising a sizable portion of the overall RAN segment in just half a decade,” said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President and analyst with the Dell’Oro Group. “At the same time, the momentum is improving, and we have adjusted the outlook upward to reflect a confluence of factors including promising results from initial commercial deployments, growing support from the incumbent RAN suppliers, and increased geopolitical uncertainty acting as a catalyst for operators to rethink their supplier strategies.”

This event will contain detailed and highly relevant discussion on this area.