SP router and switch market hits record $4.1 billion in 2Q 2023

According to a recently published report by Dell’Oro Group, the trusted source for market information about the telecommunications, security, networks, and data center industries, in 2Q 2023 the worldwide Service Provider (SP) Router and Switch market grew to a new record level as revenue surpassed $ 4.1B for the first time. This impressive market success was fueled by unleashed component supply and strong hyperscale demand. EMEA and China markets emerged, growing double-digit as large regional projects contributed significant revenue growth.

“The 2Q 2023 SP Router Market revenue growth jumped to 16 percent year-over-year surpassing the exceptional growth of the previous quarter,” said Ivaylo Peev, Senior Analyst at Dell’Oro Group. “Revenues continued to rise driven by the vendors’ ability to work through backlogs and fulfill orders, because of the improved component supply. Continued strong demand for SP routers from hyperscalers in North America contributed to the extraordinary market growth.

“We were surprised to see EMEA and China achieving double-digit growth after showing relatively weak performance over the past two years. We believe EMEA’s growth was boosted by a variety of new projects in MEA countries which include use cases in Benin, Ethiopia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, UAE, and Turkey. In China, we saw strong investments coming from the three largest operators, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom. Large-scale deployments made across metro cloud networks, broadband access networks, mobile RAN, and mobile backhaul contributed significantly to the quarter’s success,” continued Peev.

Additional highlights from the 2Q 2023 Service Provider Router and Switch Report:

• China’s re-emergence was a surprise, especially since the largest growth came from the SP Edge Router and Aggregation Switch segment. We had expected a shift of investment toward SP Core and Metro networks, which would have increased demand for SP Core Routers.
• The SP Core Router segment led the market growth, rising by 26 percent year-over-year, followed by the combined SP Edge Router and Aggregation Switch segment, which was up 13 percent year-over-year.
• Cisco and ZTE gained market share in the overall SP Router market. Huawei gained market share in the combined SP Edge Router and Aggregation Switch segment while giving up shares in the SP Core Router segment.
• Huawei and ZTE, both grew in EMEA. Huawei expanded its business in Western European countries that included Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, and Spain.

Dell’Oro