The radio access network (RAN) market remains on track for a fifth consecutive year of growth in 2022 and global revenues are projected to stay above $40 billion by 2026, says a Dell’Oro Group report.

The analyst firm has increased the cumulative 2022-2026 RAN revenue projections, partly due to revised 5G projections in China and North America.

Dell’Oro’s Mobile RAN Quarterly report 1Q 22 said earlier that the global RAN equipment market is estimated to grow by 5 percent in 2022. RAN business in North America is expected to grow by 12 percent, Europe by 5 percent and Mainland China by 4 percent.

“We have not made any major adjustments to the baseline scenario with global RAN expanding further over the near term before decelerating in the outer part of the forecast period, resulting in a flat CAGR in nominal USD terms between 2021 and 2026,” said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President and analyst with the Dell’Oro Group.

RAN excluding China is projected to increase while the Chinese RAN market is expected to peak in 2022 before decelerating in the outer part of the forecast period.

RAN investments in the North America region are also expected to peak in 2022 and give up some gains in the outer part of the forecast period.

Slower mmWave growth in 2021 is not materially impacting the forecast – mmWave is still projected to account for 2 percent to 4 percent of the 2022-2026 RAN market.

Global Massive MIMO growth prospects are projected to slow somewhat, reflecting challenging comparisons in some of the advanced Massive MIMO markets.

Small cell RAN revenues are projected to grow at a 6 percent CAGR, underpinned by healthy 5G growth.