Open RAN radio units to reach more than $47BN by 2026
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Faye Sutton
| 10 October 2020
The Open radio access network (Open RAN) market is expanding rapidly and is expected to exceed the traditional RAN market for the first time by 2027-2028.

5G 12 june 2018
That’s according to analyst firm ABI Research, whose Open RAN market data report also predicts the total CAPEX spent on Open RAN radio units (RUs) for public outdoor networks, including both macro and small cells, will reach US$40.7 billion in 2026.

Cumulative unit shipments will reach 9.9 million during the same year. Meanwhile, the total revenue of Open RAN radios for indoor enterprise networks will reach as much as US$6.7 billion in 2026, with cumulative unit shipments expected to reach 29.4 million.

Open RAN is a potential essential element in the development of cost-effective mobile video supporting networks that do not rely upon technology from so-called 'high-risk' vendors.

Jiancao Hou, Senior Analyst at ABI Research, said: “The Open RAN opportunity invites various stakeholders to bring their best in class technologies and hardware/software components to contribute to building a flexible, secure, agile, and multi-vendor interoperable network solution. In addition, trade wars and the global pandemic have resulted in tremendous restrictions on the telecom supply chain and have disrupted the evolution of new technologies. These effects will accelerate the development of Open RAN and open networks.

“ABI Research expects greenfield installations, as well as private enterprise networks and public consumer networks, in rural/uncovered areas to drive the deployment of Open RAN throughout the entire forecast period.”

Open RAN can introduce many advantages to the enterprise market, including infrastructure reconfigurability, network sustainability and deployment cost efficiency.

Added Hou: “ABI Research sees new entrants will lead the early deployment for Open RAN, but they will be increasingly challenged by tier-one vendors and system integrators for both public cellular implementations and enterprise deployment.”