Talley Inc

According to Dell'Oro Group, the open RAN movement is chugging along, enough so that the analyst firm revised its forecast upward. Open RAN is now projected to account for 15% to 20% of global RAN by 2027, according Dell'Oro Group's most recent report. Previously, the firm said open RAN would account for 15% by 2026. Stronger-than-expected open RAN progress in North America triggered the revision, according to a press release. The North American open RAN market is driven by Dish and Verizon, said Dell'Oro Group VP and analyst Stefan Pongratz via email, without going into further detail. That reinforces what Dell'Oro said in December, when it reported that North America and the Asia Pacific regions accounted for more than 95% of the open RAN market. From a revenue perspec ve, the top open RAN suppliers are s ll Samsung, Fujitsu and NEC for the 1Q22-3Q22 period, Pongratz said. Geographically, the contribu on from Europe to open RAN was s ll negligible in 2022, he said, but that could change as operators' exis ng contracts with vendors are set to expire over the next couple of years. In the U.S., layoffs at some of the early open RAN proponents, like Parallel Wireless and Mavenir, have led to ques ons about the viability of the open RAN space. However, Mavenir CEO President and CEO Pardeep Kohli told Fierce that its recent downsizing was ed to reduc ons in RCS demand, not about open RAN. Meanwhile, the U.S. government wants to see a successful open RAN market as it seeks to foster more U.S.-based suppliers versus foreign-owned. The whole idea behind open RAN is to open standards and specifica ons so that more companies can par cipate, crea ng more compe on. Inevitable challenges Regarding broader adop on beyond the early adopters, Pongratz said "the reality is that in contrast to 5G, there is no real marke ng value behind open RAN, open vRAN, cloud RAN, etc. This means that any decision to switch to open RAN/open vRAN will be a decision based on business fundamentals, performance, TCO, and future growth prospects." Even with the most op mis c total cost of ownership (TCO) es mates, "it is difficult to jus fy ripping out exis ng equipment to accelerate this transi on. But it is something the operators can consider when the me comes to order new equipment," he said. As with any technology shi , "there will be challenges," he added. "In addi on to the performance per cost gap between custom silicon and hybrid approaches relying on GPPs/accelerator cards, the technology leaders might not be as mo vated to go down this path as some of the RAN suppliers with smaller footprints." Since maximizing performance and reducing TCO are the primary objec ves, it will be important to close that technology gap between the leaders and the smaller suppliers, he said. Ar cle Credit: h ps://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/open-ran- reach-15-20-total-market-2027-delloro Open RAN to reach 15-20% of total market by 2027 Dish has been at the forefront of the open RAN movement. Talleycom.com SHEET QUARTER 1 2023

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