Revenues for 5G Core market are expected to approach $1 billion for 2020 as telecom service providers ramp-up 5G core network deployments.

5G core network accounted for nearly 15 percent share of the mobile core network revenues, Dell’Oro Group said.

Huawei and ZTE are the first and second-ranked vendors for 5G core in the second quarter of 2020.

“This is the first quarter vendors started to report 5G crore revenues, and revenues came in surprisingly strong,” said David Bolan, research director at Dell’Oro Group.

The expansion of 5G network coverage in the second half of 2020 has begun, with US-based T-Mobile commercially launching its 5G Standalone network in August, recognizing Cisco and Nokia, as their 5G core suppliers.

Three service providers in China – China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom — have named Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson and Nokia as their 5G Core suppliers.

South Korean service providers may select Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung as their 5G Core suppliers.

4G/5G Core network revenues grew 15 percent, for the trailing four quarters ending in Q2.

IMS Core VoLTE revenues grew 8 percent, for the trailing four quarters ending in Q2.

Network Function Virtualization exceeded 50 percent, for the first time in Q2.