According to a new report from Dell’Oro Group; the trusted source for market information about the telecommunications, networks and data center IT industries; microwave transmission equipment revenue grew 7 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) in the first quarter of 2022. In the quarter, Huawei and ZTE grew revenues at a faster pace than the market, resulting in significant market share gains for each company compared to the year-ago quarter.

“Sales of microwave transmission equipment started the year strong as operators increasingly added backhaul capacity to cell sites,” stated Jimmy Yu, vice president at Dell’Oro Group. “While component shortage and supply chain issues are expected to remain a problem for this industry through 2022, we continue to forecast a strong rate of market growth this year. That said, without a shortage of components, the market would be growing at a much higher rate as identified in this quarter,” added Yu.

Highlights from the 1Q 2022 Quarterly Report:

•    Mobile backhaul drove better than expected results in microwave transmission. It is estimated the microwave transmission market grew 7 percent Y/Y in 1Q 2022 due to a 16 percent Y/Y growth in mobile backhaul. This sharp growth, however, was slightly offset by a decline in the verticals market.

•    Component shortages and supply chain issues in the quarter seemed to have worsened compared to the prior quarter. We estimate that without component shortages and supply chain issues the microwave transmission market could have grown 11 percent Y/Y in the quarter.

•    Significant market share shifts occurred in the quarter with Huawei and ZTE each gaining over 4 percentage points of share compared to 1Q 2021.