Nokia has been ranked again as the top telecom software and services provider by market share, according to research firm Analysys Mason.

The ranking, in Analysys Mason’s latest annual report just published, reflects Nokia’s strategic progress in strengthening its software business.

Analysys Mason said the telecom software and services market grew about 1 percent to $66.9 billion in 2019. Nokia’s share was approximately $4.5 billion in the telecom software and services market in 2019.

Nokia said its Software products are engineered for its cloud-native, multi-network, multi-vendor Common Software Foundation and optimized for all the leading public cloud platforms to give operators wide operational flexibility.

More broadly, Nokia’s portfolio leads in such high growth areas as virtualization, digital infrastructure, network orchestration and automation, AI/machine learning, and cognitive analytics.

Analysys Mason ranked Nokia as the top software provider by product market share in its 2017 report and the same top position for both telecom software and services in the research firm’s 2018 report.

Larry Goldman, head of Networks and Software Research, Analysys Mason said: “Nokia achieved this partly through their leadership in strong growth areas like network virtualization but also because they are among the leaders in nearly every major category of telecoms software. New communication service provider software decisions lean heavily toward cloud-native products which work in Nokia’s favor.”