- Excluding North America, the RAN market saw its fifth consecutive quarter of decline, Dell'Oro said
- The North American RAN market improved starting in the second half of 2024, the analysts said
- Tariffs will have a negligible impact this year, said a Dell'Oro sage
The North American RAN market, dominated by Nordic vendors Ericsson and Nokia, has rebounded from doldrums of 2023 and early 2024 to “strong growth” in the first quarter of 2025, according to the latest report from Dell’Oro Group.
The research firm said that growth in North America was enough to offset declines in China, the Middle East and Africa and the Caribbean and Latin America. Excluding North America, the RAN market recorded a fifth consecutive quarter of declines, Dell’Oro said.
“The North American RAN market started improving in the second half of 2024, and this positive momentum will extend into 2025,” the report’s author Stefan Pongratz, vice president at Dell’Oro, told Fierce in an email. “[Sales] will be more challenging after 2025, so we expect the lion’s share of the growth in 2024 and 2025,” he said.
He added, “The tariffs are expected to have a negligible impact on the 2025 [North American] RAN market."
Tariffs seemed worrying to executives on Nokia's and Ericsson’s recent earnings calls. But — like everyone else — the execs didn’t know exactly what was happening with the Trump levies yet.
China RAN wobbles
China’s RAN market is currently declining after years of 5G growth. “China is at a different point in the cycle since 5G investments remained elevated even after reaching nationwide 5G coverage,” Pongratz said. “China’s RAN trajectory is trending downward, and the decline will be amplified in 2024 and 2025.”
Huawei is the number one global RAN vendor, followed by Ericsson and Nokia and then ZTE. Excluding China, the order flips with Ericsson leading the pack, followed by Nokia and then Huawei, followed by Samsung.
“We're still modeling the overall RAN market to be stable in 2025, with RAN excluding China growing at a moderate pace,” Pongratz concluded.