Stefan Pongratz

Vice President

The Open RAN movement has entered a new phase. What began as an initiative focused on openness and supplier diversification is increasingly evolving into a broader transition toward standardized interfaces, cloud-native architectures, and more flexible RAN deployments. As operator strategies mature, Open Fronthaul, Cloud RAN, and multi-vendor RAN are emerging as distinct technology trends, each with its own adoption drivers and long-term trajectory.

While near-term adoption has progressed more gradually than originally anticipated, our long-term outlook for Open RAN remains favorable. Open Fronthaul continues to gain momentum as leading RAN suppliers incorporate open interfaces across broader product portfolios, making Open RAN increasingly a story about interface standardization rather than supplier diversification. At the same time, Cloud RAN adoption is becoming more dependent on deployment economics and silicon innovation, while multi-vendor RAN is expected to remain a more specialized segment of the market.

The competitive landscape is also evolving. As incumbent suppliers expand Open Fronthaul support, reported Open RAN market shares are expected to better reflect the broader RAN market rather than only early Open RAN deployments. This reinforces an important distinction: wider adoption of open interfaces does not necessarily translate into greater supplier diversity.

This report examines how Open RAN is evolving, assesses the long-term opportunities for Open Fronthaul, Cloud RAN, and Virtualized RAN, and evaluates the implications for operators, suppliers, and the broader RAN ecosystem. In addition to updated long-term forecasts, the Open RAN report now also includes quarterly Open RAN and vRAN vendor market share tracking to provide deeper visibility into market developments.

The report addresses such questions as:

  • What are the key differences between Open RAN, Open Fronthaul, Cloud RAN, Virtualized RAN, and multi-vendor RAN?
  • What is driving the adoption of open interfaces?
  • How are operator priorities and deployment strategies evolving?
  • What is the long-term market opportunity for Open RAN, Cloud RAN, and Virtualized RAN?
  • Which regions are expected to lead adoption?
  • How will Open RAN affect vendor positioning and competitive dynamics?
  • What are the key risks and opportunities over the next five years?

The report includes quarterly vendor shares for the following areas:

  • Open RAN
  • Virtualized RAN

The report includes a 5-year forecast for the following areas:

  • Open RAN – Single-vendor and Multi-vendor, Proprietary RAN
  • Open RAN – Regions (North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia Pacific, CALA)
  • Open RAN – RAN Function (Baseband and Radio)
  • Cloud RAN – Cloud RAN and Purpose-built RAN
  • Virtualized RAN – Regions (North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia Pacific, CALA)
  • Virtualized RAN – Servers