Leading vendors in telecom network business such as Cisco, Samsung, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Dell VMWare, Corning and ZTE have increased their market share in 2021 as leader Huawei lost business.
Huawei’s telecom network share dropped by 1.5 percent.

Ericsson’s telecom network share dipped by 0.2 percent.

Nokia’s telecom network share decreased by 0.4 percent.

The increase in telecom network market share of Cisco was (+0.7 percent), Samsung (+0.3 percent), Microsoft (+0.3 percent), Amazon Web Services (AWS) (+0.2 percent), Dell VMWare (+0.2 percent), Corning (+0.2 percent) and ZTE (+0.1 percent), according to MTN Consulting.

Cisco gained 0.7 percent share in a market worth $231.4 billion. Cisco was helped both by a telco shift in 5G spending towards core networks, and Huawei’s entity list troubles.

Samsung’s share growth of 0.3 percent was due to a big win with Verizon and a growing telco interest in seeking RAN alternatives beyond Ericsson and Nokia.

ZTE, which has escaped the US entity list to date, picked up some unexpected 5G wins but its growth is more broad-based due to optical, fixed broadband, and emerging market 4G business.

Dell (including VMWare), Microsoft, and Amazon picked up share as telcos have begun investing in 5G core and cloud technologies. Their growth was due to telcos’ ongoing changes to network architecture and service deployment patterns.

Corning gained 0.2 percent share on the back of fiber-rich wireless deployments and government support for rural fiber builds.

Nokia and Ericsson lost share in the telco NI market in 2021. Their RAN revenues benefited from Huawei’s troubles in 2020 but telco spending has since shifted towards product areas with more non-Huawei competition.

Huawei’s share of telco NI declined to 18.9 percent in 2021, down from over 20 percent in both 2019 and 2020. The US Commerce Department’s entity list restrictions were issued in May 2019 but hit the hardest in late 2020 and 2021.

To date, Huawei’s troubles have impacted RAN markets the most, but in 2022 and 2023 will begin spreading more clearly to IP infrastructure, optical, microwave, fixed broadband, and other areas. A number of vendors are eager to pursue new opportunities as this happens, including Adtran/ADVA, Ciena, Cisco, CommScope, DZS, and Infinera.