Dell'Oro said the RAN market became stable in late 2025
The analyst group said that the market wouldn't grow significantly until 6G investments start
Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Samsung are the major vendors in the market
Like the latest Ericsson and Nokia results indicate, the latest Dell’Oro radio access network (RAN) market report shows that the market “stabilized” in the latter part of 2025, after losing value between 2022 and 2024. Dell’Oro Group’s RAN VP told Fierce Network that it will remain stable until 6G investments commence.
Dell’Oro described the stabilization as a positive shift for the market overall. “Taking into consideration that the RAN market lost around a fifth of its value between 2022 and 2024, this improved stability in 2025 represents a welcome shift in market conditions,” said Stefan Pongratz, VP for RAN market research at Dell'Oro said in a statement.
Pongratz told Fierce that the stable RAN market will exist through till the 6G era arrives. “It can go through periods of higher and lower capital intensity ratios as operators align investment needs with the availability of new spectrum/technologies and demand for capacity,” he said. “The base case forecast is for stable RAN and capex trends, resulting in further improvements in capital intensity ratios before 6G investments commence towards the end of the forecast period.”
Pongratz didn’t specifically say when 6G RAN may start. We can, however, expect operators to start bolstering their networks with 6G radios from 2029 and onwards through the early 2030s.
The RAN players
In 2025, the top five RAN suppliers by worldwide revenue are Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Samsung. Huawei and Nokia gained ground over the year, Ericsson and Samsung were stable, and ZTE’s RAN revenue share fell.
Pongratz told Fierce that multi-vendor RAN is the least likely to make a big impression on the RAN market over the next few years. “The likelihood that Open RAN, Cloud RAN, and Multi-vendor RAN will play a major role in the second half of 5G and from the start with 6G is likely, less likely, and unlikely, respectively,” he said.
Read next: What Fierce Network is watching for at MWC 2026: AI, 5G and network transformation