Dell’Oro: 5G NR to Boost RAN Investments to $160B in Five Years

A new report by Dell’Oro Group provides a fairly positive forecast for growth in 5G New Radio (NR) investments over the coming five years, no doubt based on the flurry of activity that has been signaled by operators globally as they get ready to launch 5G on a commercial basis. The Mobile RAN 5-Year Forecast Report claims that robust demand for 5G NR will propel the cumulative worldwide radio access network (RAN) market to close to $160 billion over the next five years. Stefan Pongratz, an analyst at Dell’Oro, noted that there are now reasons to be optimistic about the mobile infrastructure market over the next couple of years, following three consecutive years of declining revenues. 5G NR is expected to advance at a faster pace than LTE and account for the majority of the overall RAN market by 2023. “Even if 5G will be just another G initially, the reality is that for the carriers that have the right spectrum, the business case of capitalizing on the existing macro infrastructure using Massive MIMO is extremely compelling,” Pongratz added.