According to a recently published report from Dell’Oro Group, the trusted source for market information about the telecommunications, networks and data center IT industries, the demand for small cells remains strong. Preliminary findings suggest small cell radio access network (RAN) revenues advanced 15 percent year-over-year in the first quarter, growing at a faster pace than the broader small cell plus macro RAN market.

“The fact that small cell investments are still advancing at a rapid pace even as the operators are intensifying their 5G macro roll out efforts show that small cells are now an essential part of the broader RAN toolkit,” said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “Helping to explain this output acceleration is the shift towards 5G and the shrinking gap between macro and small cell deployments, especially with upper mid-band 5G,” continued Pongratz.

Additional small cell highlights from the 1Q 2022 RAN report:

• Top five suppliers in the quarter include Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Samsung
• Nearly all the small cell growth is driven by public 5G—small cell LTE revenues declined in the quarter and private 5G small cell investments are still negligible
• Global small cell RAN revenues remain on track to surpass $5 B in 2022.

About the Report

Dell’Oro Group’s RAN Quarterly Report offers a complete overview of the RAN industry, with tables covering manufacturers’ and market revenue for multiple RAN segments including 5G NR Sub-6 GHz, 5G NR mmWave, LTE, macro base stations and radios, small cells, Massive MIMO, Open RAN and vRAN. The report also tracks the RAN market by region and includes a four-quarter outlook.