CSPs face several options for 5G standalone

According to a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group, the trusted source for market information about the telecommunications, networks, and data center IT industries, revenues for the Mobile Core Network (MCN) market slowed to 6 percent year-over-year growth in 2Q 2021 after four quarters of double-digit growth.

Communication Service Providers (CSPs) indecisions about moving forward with 5G Standalone (excepting China) are slowing 5G Core market growth which is now expected to decelerate over the next four quarters dropping to 17 percent year-over-year in 2Q 2022.

“We attribute the slowdown to the slow uptake of 5G Standalone (SA) networks. CSPs need to make decisions about which direction to take for 5G SA deployments. CSPs have several options to mull over, with new choices that were not available during the switch from 3G to 4G,” stated David Bolan, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group.

“One decision CSPs need to make is about the selection of Network Function Virtualization Infrastructure (NFVI). NFVI can be procured from a 5G core vendor, a third-party, the public cloud, or another platform like the Rakuten Communications Platform.”

Additional highlights from the 2Q 2021 Mobile Core Network Report:

• The Asia Pacific region accounted for 70 percent of the revenues for 5G Core as the Chinese SPs continue to build and Japanese SPs begin their buildouts.

• Top vendor ranking remains unchanged based on the four trailing quarters ending in 2Q 2021: Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE, and Mavenir.

• 4G MCN revenues are now in continual decline, but still represented 70 percent of the mix between 4G and 5G. CT Bureau