“The 5G wireless transport market is expected to grow exponentially to over $1B in 2023, and microwave will play a critical role in this growth. Despite common perception, it’s not just about fiber,” said Jimmy Yu, Vice President, Dell’Oro Group.

Market research company Dell’Oro Group boosted its short-term open RAN sales forecast, tipping revenue from hardware, software and firmware to hit $10 billion by end-2025 as momentum behind the approach grows.

The O-RAN hardware and software market is forecast to account for 10% of the broader RAN market and surpass $5 billion in cumulative revenue through 2025, according to a report from Dell’Oro Group. Sales of virtualized O-RAN basebands and radios, including software and firmware, are expected to capture less than 1% of the RAN market this year, but the double-digital annual growth rates predicted by Dell’Oro Group are being fueled by various factors, including a politically-motivated trade war that generally positions open RAN as an alternative to Chinese-made equipment.

“It will be interesting to see the split between fiber and fixed wireless technologies used to support these unserved areas, as Charter has been committed to both technologies,” said Dell’Oro Group’s Jeff Heynen, vice president for broadband access and home networking, in a Monday morning email to FierceTelecom. “In general, we are expecting to see an uptick this year in cable remote OLT deployments for FTTH this year and next, as part of both greenfield and overbuild scenarios. We assume some of these deployments will be for RDOF-related projects, such as Charter’s.”