Revenues for the Mobile Core Network (MCN) market increased 16 percent in Q1 2021, according to Dell’Oro Group.

5G Core market reached over 20 percent revenue share of the MCN market.

This growth rate has been fueled from buildouts from five commercially deployed nationwide mobile 5G Standalone (5G SA) networks, three in China, one in the US, and one in Western Europe.

Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE, and Mavenir are the top vendors for the quarter in 1Q 2021 based on the trailing four quarters.

David Bolan, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group, said: “The MCN market is poised for higher growth as more 5G SA networks are readying to come on-line.  An example comes from Japan, as some of the Japanese service providers (SPs) are readying their networks for 5G SA.

NEC, one of the primary 5G vendors in Japan, ranked fourth among 5G Packet Core vendors in 1Q21, achieving double-digit percent revenue market share.

Investment in 4G Core saw its first double-digit percentage revenue decline year-over-year as more investments go into 5G.

IMS Core market growth remains positive as SPs realize they need to move their voice core from circuit switched voice to VoLTE for initial voice services for 5G.