5G Infrastructure Equipment Market

5G Infrastructure Equipment Market Definition

The 5G infrastructure equipment market consists of sales of 5G infrastructure equipment and related services by entities (organizations, sole traders and partnerships) that manufacture 5G network hardware or network communication devices supporting 5G technology that is used for telecommunications including wireless communication networks, and broadcasting through 5G networks.

5G is the 5th generation telecommunication standard that provides high speed, reduced or zero latency, wider bandwidth, and improved connectivity. The network speed of 5G technology exceeds wired network speeds and offers very low latency (about 1 millisecond (ms) or lower). These features are useful for applications requiring real-time feedback.

5G Infrastructure Equipment Market Size

The global 5G infrastructure equipment market reached a value of nearly $2,211.4 million in 2019. The market is then expected to grow at a CAGR of 69.93% from 2019 ad reach $18,437.5 million in 2023.  

Growth in the historic period resulted from growth in emerging markets, increase in investments in smart cities, need for advanced technology and adoption of 5G network. Factor that negatively affected growth in the historic period was high prices.  

Going forward, rising digital economy, growing demand for 5G enabled smartphones, interest rates and private 5G networks will drive the growth. Factors that could hinder the growth of the market in the future geopolitical tensions, volatility in raw material prices, consumer perception of 5G being a health concern, and cost to end users.

5G Infrastructure Equipment Market Drivers

The key drivers of the 5G infrastructure equipment market include:

Digital Economy Rising

The rising digital economy is expected to be a major driver for the 5G infrastructure equipment market. There is an increase in broadband and internet penetration, consumption of premium content digitally, exponential growth in data absorption, government’s focus on digitalization in developing and developed nations, and an increasing trend of technology adoption across industries. The evolution in the digital economy will require significant performance of the network and will pave way for establishing 5G technology. As a result, companies in the telecom industry are expanding their wired and wireless networks and are venturing into 5G technology. For instance, AT&T is making instant connectivity and higher speeds possible for its customers to consume premium content by expanding their fiber network and enhancing wireless network through 5G deployment.

5G Infrastructure Equipment Market Restraints

The key restraints on the 5G infrastructure equipment market include:

Geopolitics Tensions

Geopolitical tensions are expected to limit the growth of the market for 5G infrastructure equipment during the forecast period. The tension between India and China that flared up recently, the US-China trade war that has been escalating since the COVID pandemic, and the instability in UK-China relations have compounded restraints on companies in the 5G infrastructure equipment industry. For instance, the USA and the UK have blocked Huawei Technologies from expanding its geographical reach in the 5G infrastructure equipment market due to the political tensions these countries have with China.    As a result, Huawei being the dominant supplier in the 5G market may lose its grip in the market. These cross-border tensions affect market players and eventually impact the market negatively.  

5G Infrastructure Equipment Market Trends

Major trends influencing the 5G infrastructure equipment market include:

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)

NFV (network functions virtualization) is receiving significant investments from wireless telecoms service providers. NFV technology supports the virtualization of components, allowing a flexible network infrastructure that enables applications and services to be moved to the cloud. NFV brings agility and efficiency to networks and business operations, and helps operators to support dynamic subscriber demands efficiently and economically. NFV will enable network slicing and help manage network resources efficiently. Many companies are offering tools and professional services to assist operators to migrate to NFV. For instance, Millicom announced a strategic partnership with VMware to design and deploy an NFV platform enabling service and application delivery for all of their subsidiaries.

Fog Computing

Fog computing is an emerging trend in 5G technology. Fog computing is a distributed network, which facilitates extending cloud computing capabilities such as computation, storage and networking services between end devices and cloud computing data centers. Fog computing extends cloud computing to the network edge, offering several advantages including low latency, load balancing and flexible mobility support. It reduces the amount of bandwidth needed by creating a low-latency network. 5G technology sometimes requires very dense antenna deployments, and in such circumstances where these antennas need to be deployed less than 20 kilometers from one another, fog computing architecture is used among these stations. It includes a centralized controller, which manages applications running on the 5G network, and handles connections to back-end data centers or clouds. Fog computing is predominantly being used in time-critical applications requiring sub-millisecond reaction time.

Opportunities And Recommendations In The 5G Infrastructure Equipment Market

Opportunities – The top opportunities in the 5G infrastructure equipment market segmented by communication infrastructure will arise in the macro cell market segment, which will gain $11,350 million of global annual sales by 2023. The top opportunities in the 5G infrastructure equipment market segmented by network technology will arise in the network function virtualization (NFV), which will gain $8,957.5 million of global annual sales by 2023.  

Recommendations- To take advantage of the opportunities, the business research company recommends the 5G infrastructure equipment companies to focus on research & development, invest in network functions virtualization (NFV) technology, focus on adopting fog computing, focus on merger activities, offer competitive pricing, expanding in emerging markets, set up authorized distributors and sales representatives, leverage e-commerce to maximize reach and revenues, partner with technology companies, increased adoption of internet and social media, participate in trade shows and events, and make B2B partnerships.

5G Infrastructure Equipment Market Segmentation

The 5G infrastructure equipment market is segmented by communication infrastructure, by type of network technology
By Communication Infrastructure – The 5G infrastructure equipment market is segmented by communication infrastructure into

1. a. Small Cell
2. b. Macro Cell
3. c. Radio Access Network (RAN)
4. d. Distributed Antenna System (DAS)

The macro cell market was the largest segment of the 5G infrastructure equipment market segmented by type of communication infrastructure, accounting for 70.5% of the total in 2019. Going forward, distributed antenna system (DAS) is expected to be the fastest growing segment in the 5G infrastructure equipment market, at a CAGR of 75.7% during 2019-2023.
By Type of Network Technology- The 5G infrastructure equipment market is segmented by type of network technology into

1. a. Software Defined Networking (SDN)
2. b. Network Function Virtualization (NFV)
3. c. Mobile Edge Computing (MEC)
4. d. Fog Computing (FC)

The network function virtualization (NFV) was the largest segment of the 5G infrastructure equipment market segmented by type of network technology, accounting for 52.2% of the total in 2019. Going forward, the fog computing is expected to be the fastest growing segment in the 5G infrastructure equipment market, at a CAGR of 94.9% during 2019-2023.
Segmentation By Geography- The 5G infrastructure equipment market is segmented into

1. o North America
   • USA
2. o Western Europe
   • France
   • Germany
   • UK
3. o Asia Pacific
   • China
   • Australia
   • India
   • Indonesia
   • Japan
   • South Korea
4. o Eastern Europe
   • Russia
5. o South America
   • Brazil
6. o Middle East
7. o Africa

Asia Pacific was the largest region in the global 5G infrastructure equipment market, accounting for 82.5% of the total in 2019. It was followed by North America, Western Europe, and then the other regions. Going forward, the fastest-growing regions in the 5G infrastructure equipment market will be Middle East and Africa, where growth will be at CAGRs of 174.1% and 174.1% respectively. These will be followed by South America, and Eastern Europe where the markets are expected to grow at CAGRs of 168.4% and 117.2% respectively.

5G Infrastructure Equipment Competitive Landscape

Major Competitors are:

1. • Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.
2. • Nokia Corporation
3. • Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson
4. • Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
5. • Fujitsu Limited

Other Competitors Include:

1. • ZTE Corporation
2. • NEC Corporation
3. • CommScope Inc.
4. • Airspan Networks
5. • Comba Telecom Systems Holdings Ltd.
6. • Datang Telecom Group
7. • Alpha Networks
8. • Siklu Communication
9. • Mediatek Inc
10. • ECI Telecom Ltd
11. • Vodafone
12. • Deutsche Telekom
13. • BT Group,
14. • Virgin Media,
15. • Intel Corporation,
16. • O2
17. • Cisco Systems, Inc
18. • Ciena Corporation
19. • Extreme Networks
20. • Qualcomm
21. • Corning Inc.
22. • Belden Inc,
23. • Qorvo
24. • Aviat Networks
25. • Cavium Inc
26. • include Siklu Communication (Israel)
27. • Ooredoo
28. • MTN
29. • Du (Emirates Integrated Telecommunication Company (EITC)
30. • Zain Group (Bahrain)
31. • Batelco (Bahrain)
32. • VIVA (Bahrain)
33. • Saudi Mobily Company
34. • Etisalat Corporation (UAE)
35. • STC
36. • MTN Group
37. • Rain
38. • Comsol Networks (Pty) Ltd.