The total Mobile Core Network (MCN) and Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) market 2021 revenue growth slowed to the lowest rate since 2017.

The growth rate in MCN and MEC markets is expected to go higher in 2022 with the expansion of the 21 commercial 5G Standalone (5G SA) MBB networks that were deployed by the end of 2021, coupled with new 5G SA networks readying to launch throughout the year.

“MCN revenues for 2021 were lower due to a poor fourth quarter performance. The revenues for 4Q 2021 were lower than in 4Q 2020. The last time that happened was in 4Q 2017,” stated Dave Bolan, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “The poor performance in 4Q 2021 was due to negative year-over-year revenue performance for the China region.”

The growth in 2021 came from the 5G MCN segment and was not enough to offset the decline in 4G MCN and IMS Core.

Of the 21 5G SA networks commercially deployed Huawei is the packet core vendor in seven of the networks, including the three largest networks in the world located in China.

Ericsson is the packet core vendor in 10 of the networks. Huawei and Ericsson gained MCN revenue market share during 2021.

MEC is a fraction of the overall MCN market. Ericsson will accelerate the adoption of MEC and help 5G MNOs monetize their networks by coalescing MEC implementations around the 3GPP standards.

Top-ranked MCN vendors based on revenue in 2021 were Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE, and Mavenir.

The EMEA region was the only region to grow in revenue in 2021. The APAC region was the largest region in revenue for 2021.