“Quietly, broadband access networks are evolving into large-scale edge compute platforms, with the ability to enable service convergence far more quickly and easily than ever before,” said Jeff Heynen, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group.

“Our long-term view of the routing market remains positive, especially for High End Routers,” stated Jimmy Yu, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “At the end of the day, bandwidth demand continues to increase. There are of course times when the market contracts when network supply exceeds current needs, like it did last year in 2024.

“The underlying message we have communicated for some time has not changed. Regional imbalances will impact the market dynamics over the short term while the long-term trajectory remains flat,” said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President for RAN market research at Dell’Oro Group.

“The only bright spots are the segments that will grow during the forecast period. They are the EMEA region, 5G MCN, and MEC. However, these segments are not growing enough to offset the decline in the 4G MCN and VoLTE/VoNR market segments….Unfortunately, it is a bleak outlook,” said Dave Bolan, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group