“Demand for mobile backhaul continued to be a strong driver for Microwave Transmission equipment growth,” stated Jimmy Yu, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “We believe this growth will continue for some time as 5G deployments proliferate beyond geographic locations that have fiber in place,” added Yu.

At this pace, we could be headed for another year of double-digit growth in North America,” said Jimmy Yu, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “While we expected another year of North American optical market expansion in 2022, we thought the growth rate could slow a bit after such a strong 2021.

The pace of 5G MCN investments in the rest of the world pales by comparison to China. China has led the way since 2020 and does not look like it is ready to slow down,” stated Dave Bolan, Research Director at Dell’Oro Group. “In 2Q 2022, a new 5G Standalone (5G SA) Mobile Network Operator (MNO), China Broadnet, launched its 5G SA network, the fourth MNO to do so in China…

“The shift in the pendulum is not a surprise, but admittedly it has swung a bit faster toward the negative than initially expected”, said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President at Dell’Oro Group. “Slower momentum is not a sign that the 5G deployment phase is over. The message we have communicated for some time now, namely that the 5G cycle will be longer than previous technology cycles, still holds. At the same time, market conditions in the quarter were impacted by APAC excluding China, Russia, and foreign exchange,” continued Pongratz.