Huawei to lead 5G RAN equipment ahead of Nokia and Ericsson

A report from Strategy Analytics predicts Huawei will have a two point lead in terms of share of 5G subscribers served by its 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment in 2023.
5G RAN market share forecastHuawei benefits from the scale of the early 5G market in China and its steady investment in R&D.

Huawei invested CNY101.5 billion — representing 14.1 percent of its sales revenue in R&D – in 2018.

Huawei’s carrier business revenue reached CNY294 billion in 2018 without showing any growth as compared with 2017.

Huawei recently said it has won 45 network contracts from mobile operators to build and operate 5G infrastructure. Finland-based Nokia has signed 30 5G network contracts from mobile service providers. Sweden-based Ericsson has 18 5G contracts.

At present, 211 telecom operators are making 5G network investment in 57 countries to enhance their revenue streams and customer experience.

Ericsson and Nokia — other leading 5G RAN vendors — will be close rivals for Huawei as the global market volume drives down cost. Samsung and ZTE are expected to expand presence alongside new emerging OpenRAN vendors as competition heats up. Samsung said it’s the #1 5G network supplier in Korea.

Huawei will lead the 5G RAN equipment market despite facing challenging developments in the US market

Guang Yang, director at Strategy Analytics, said: “R&D investment backed by market scale is the most crucial factor for the long term competitiveness of 5G infrastructure vendors. Huawei has maintained steady growth in its 5G R&D investment.”

By 2023 5G will achieve economies of scale that will drive down the costs per Gigabyte of throughput to make 5G an affordable technology.

“The battle between Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia for share of 2023’s 5G radio access should lower costs for all segments of mobile, IoT and fixed 5G applications,” said Phil Kendall, executive director at Strategy Analytics.

Huawei, Ericsson and Nokia will each serve between 25 percent and 22 percent of global 5G subscribers on their RAN equipment.

Samsung and ZTE as well several new emerging OpenRAN players will share almost 30 percent of global 5G subscribers.

5G radio access will become a competitive market by 2023 and economies of scale will ensure that costs per Gigabyte of throughput will drop to make 5G an affordable enterprise and consumer technology.

China’s early market adoption of 5G networks should bring down costs more rapidly than in previous generations of 3G an 4G.

Baburajan K