Following three consecutive years of contracting worldwide Radio Access Networks (RAN) revenues, the overall Mobile Infrastructure market improved at a high single-digit rate in the third quarter—recording the strongest growth rate since 2014, according to Dell’Oro Group.
ZTE’s RAN business gained five points share and recovered rapidly in the quarter. The vendor was able to reclaim its number four position during 3Q 2018.
“The results in the quarter support the thesis we have communicated for some time that market conditions are improving,” said Stefan Pongratz, Senior Director with Dell’Oro Group. “In addition to resurging investments in the North America region propelled by operators investing in LTE and 5G ready networks, the Asia Pacific region rebounded after multiple quarters of steep declines, reflecting improved momentum in China,” continued Pongratz.
The report also shows that while the vendor rankings for the top three vendors remained unchanged with Huawei, Ericsson, and Nokia leading the market, the gap between Huawei and Ericsson narrowed sequentially. ZTE was able to reclaim its number four position after Samsung briefly surpassed ZTE during 2Q 2018.
