The Mobile Core Network (MCN) market skyrocketed to 32 percent year-over-year (Y/Y) growth in 1Q 2025, according to a new report from Dell’Oro Group. The China market led the way with a 122 percent Y/Y growth, and the worldwide market, excluding China, was up 12 percent Y/Y.
“With this high growth rate in 1Q 2025, we are raising our projection for the year 2025 from 2 percent Y/Y to 5 percent Y/Y,” stated Dave Bolan, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “In China, several major projects were completed in 1Q 2025, mostly beneficial to ZTE. Other factors driving growth was swapping out virtual network functions (VNFs) with cloud-native network functions (CNFs) and migration of subscribers from 4G handsets to 5G handsets, thus increasing demand for more capacity on the newly minted 5G Standalone (5G SA) networks.
“We have noted one major 5G SA network launching in 2025, Orange in France. Airtel in India and Vodafone in Spain have announced plans to ready their networks for 5G SA in 2025. We expect the 2025 growth rate for the 5G MCN market to be 15 percent Y/Y. In addition, IMS Core is beginning to show continued growth as more 3G networks sunset, and with modernization to CNFs on the rise, we project IMS Core will be up 5 percent Y/Y in 2025,” added Bolan.
Additional highlights from the 1Q 2025 Mobile Core Network and Multi-Access Edge Computing Report include:
- For the Worldwide market, excluding China, we expect the 2025 growth rate to be 3 percent Y/Y, with the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region having the highest growth rate. China will have the highest overall growth rate at 12 percent, with more subscribers migrating to 5G.
- For 1Q 2025, the vendor rankings were:
- Worldwide: Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, and Nokia.
- Worldwide, excluding China: Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, and ZTE.
