RAN Market Stabilises Driven by Huawei, Ericsson & Nokia

Telecommunications and network market intelligence research group Dell'Oro has found that the global Radio Access Network (RAN) market outside of China has shown growth for the third consecutive quarter in 2Q 2025, driven by leading players including Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia.

Its report highlights a stabilisation in market conditions following two years of sharp decline, with revenues from baseband, radio hardware and software (excluding services) seeing a notable upward trend.

Dell’Oro Group’s competitive analysis across the telecoms, security, enterprise and data centre sectors offers insight into the shifting dynamics of the RAN ecosystem.

Its latest research signals cautious optimism for vendors and operators navigating a fragmented and competitive landscape.

Cautious optimism from industry analysts

“Our initial assessment confirms that the narrative we’ve been discussing for some time is now coming to fruition. Market conditions have continued to stabilise, resulting in growth for three consecutive quarters outside of China,” said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President of RAN market research at Dell’Oro Group.

He added a note of caution: “However, broader market sentiment remains subdued and not anticipating a rapid rebound. The industry acknowledges that short-term fluctuations are unlikely to alter the market’s generally flat long-term trajectory.”

For telecommunications providers, these insights point to steady, if modest, opportunities for revenue expansion, tempered by the reality that large-scale recovery is unlikely in the near term.

Regional variations in RAN performance

The report notes that growth in Europe, as well as the Middle East and Africa, nearly offset declines in the Caribbean, Latin America and Asia Pacific.

These kinds of regional disparities highlight the current uneven pace of adoption and investment across global telecoms markets, reinforcing the importance for vendors to align strategies with regional demand drivers.

Ericsson and Huawei currently remain dominant players, collectively accounting for more than 60% of the 1H25 market share in North America and China, respectively. The top five suppliers by global revenue remain unchanged: Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Samsung.

The report highlights Huawei’s strong position, particularly in China, while Ericsson maintains resilience in other international markets. For operators, these dynamics suggest that vendor partnerships will increasingly influence competitiveness in service delivery and network quality.

Outlook for the RAN market

Despite the market seeing three quarters of recovery, Dell’Oro Group maintains its short-term forecast, with total RAN revenues expected to stabilise across 2025 rather than accelerate.

While innovation in areas such as Open RAN, vRAN and Massive MIMO continues, the report suggests these technologies will drive incremental rather than transformative growth in the near future.

The full report

Dell’Oro Group’s RAN Quarterly Report provides a detailed analysis of manufacturer performance and market revenue across multiple RAN segments, including 5G NR Sub-7 GHz, 5G NR mmWave, LTE, macro base stations and radios, small cells, Massive MIMO, Open RAN and vRAN.