Dell’Oro Group VP Stefan Pongratz stated the vision of open RAN as a way to eliminate vendor lock-in is fading, with the promise of creating a broad market of suppliers for operators to choose from stalling despite the technique taking off.

In a research note, Pongratz explained leading RAN suppliers are now committed to the latest O-RAN Alliance fronthaul interfaces, resulting in a shift in focus to how well the approach is picked up by the radio equipment industry.

The analyst said the “question, now is more about the timing and the adoption curve for the various RAN segments”.

Dell’Oro Group believes the long-term position remains favourable and mostly unchanged to research it promoted in February.

Over time, operators will gradually incorporate more virtualisation, intelligence, automation, and open infrastructure into their RAN roadmaps, but the pace will differ slightly between the radios and the baseband.

Dell’Oro Group reiterated a prediction open RAN would account for more than 25 per cent of the overall market by 2028, with cloud versions expected to take between 20 per cent and 25 per cent, and multi-vendor less than 10 per cent.

The company noted North America had been a driver of open RAN in recent years, but “stumbled” in 2023. Dell’Oro Group expects a recovery, though, forecasting the region to lead the market until 2028.

Europe is expected to pick up some pace after “a slow start”: Dell’Oro Group forecasts the region will account for 15 per cent to 20 per cent of global open RAN revenue by 2028.