Stefan Pongratz joined Dell’Oro Group in 2010 and is responsible for the firm’s Mobile RAN market and Telecom Capex research programs. While at the firm, Mr. Pongratz has expanded the RAN research and authored multiple Advanced Research Reports to ensure the program is evolving to address new RAN technologies and opportunities including small cells, 6G, 5G, Open RAN, Massive MIMO, mmWave, IoT, private wireless, and CBRS. He built the Telecom Capex coverage detailing revenues and investments of over 50 carriers worldwide.
Prior to joining Dell’Oro Group, Mr. Pongratz was with Anritsu Company for 10 years, where he was most recently a Senior Product Manager responsible for portable spectrum analyzers and cable and antenna analyzers used to verify base station quality. During his tenure at Anritsu, Mr. Pongratz also held positions in engineering and manufacturing management.
Mr. Pongratz research and analysis have been cited with the suppliers and publications including Barron’s, Bloomberg, Fierce Wireless, EE Times, Financial Times, Lightreading, Pipeline Magazine, RCR Wireless, Telecom Asia and the Wall Street Journal. He has hosted webinars and speaks at industry conferences, including Brooklyn 5G Summit, OFC, Small Cell World, RAN USA, RAN World, and the Telecom Industry Association.
Mr. Pongratz graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of California Irvine. He also holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University, and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Davis.
Accomplishments
Mr. Pongratz’s research insights are notable for distinguishing between hype and reality. During the peak of the LTE hype cycle, he was among the few telecom analysts who predicted that the shift from 3G to 4G would not grow the overall mobile infrastructure market. For six years, Mr. Pongratz consistently issued negative 5-year CAGR projections for the overall RAN market. During the C-RAN and small cell hype cycles, he correctly predicted that the shifts from D-RAN to C-RAN and macro to the small cell would take significantly longer than expected.
I love wireless technologies and numbers - and the Dell’Oro DNA motivates me to dig deep and express the underlying technology analysis with numbers.
Press Releases
- Private Wireless RAN Revenues up ~40 Percent in 2023, According to Dell’Oro Group
- Telecom Capex Declined in 2023 as Operators Scale Back on 5G, According to Dell’Oro Group
- RAN Market Shows Faint Signals of Life in 4Q 2023, According to Dell’Oro Group
Articles
- 6G and The Long RF Journey Ahead
- The open RAN movement is here to stay — Pongratz
- Five years in, is 5G a success or failure?
Blogs
- Worldwide Telecom Equipment Market Slumps in 2023
- MWC Barcelona 2024 – RAN Highlights
- 5G Advanced – How will it impact the RAN Market?
Videos
- Dell’Oro Group talks 5G Advanced and operator differentiation
- Private5G: When Will Private Wireless Take Off?
- A cloud-native network—the key enabler to Open RAN
Webinars
In the News
- Nvidia’s radio ambitions: Do AI RANs dream of 6G?
- The future is bright. The future is open RAN.
- MaxLinear Launches Single Chip for 5G Open RAN Radio Units
