The investment recovery in China that began in the second half of 2018 is expected to extend over the next five years, propelling China’s 5G RAN market to advance nearly fivefold relative to an already-aggressive 2019 baseline, according to the latest Dell’Oro Group Mobile RAN 5-Year July Forecast Report.
“While there is still some uncertainty about the 5G NR business case driven by new revenue opportunities, the momentum for 5G NR eMBB is developing at a broader and faster pace than originally anticipated,” said Stefan Pongratz, Senior Director with the Dell’Oro Group. “With data traffic projected to grow 3 to 4 times over the forecast period, no one is asking any more whether there is a business case for using more spectrum and utilizing it more efficiently,” continued Pongratz.
China is expected to dominate the 5G capex envelope – cumulative investments projected to be more than twice the size of North America’s 5G RAN investments over the forecast period.The shift from conventional antenna systems towards Massive MIMO is accelerating – operators are on track to deploy nearly 400 M transceivers over the forecast period.The small cell outlook has been adjusted upward to reflect stronger than expected demand for indoor Sub 6 GHz small cells – total small cell RAN market forecasted to nearly double over the forecast period.
