Optimistic projections: $5bn boost to ORAN by 2025

Despite challenges, optimistic projections add an extra $5bn on Open RAN’s revenue by 2025.

Whether it’s highlighting a cautious approach by vendors or the optimistic projections for the next 4 years, Open RAN just can’t keep out of the headlines lately. Dell’Oro Group, the respected research firm for the telecommunications industry recently projected that Open RAN revenues could reach $10bn between 2020 and 2025. Whilst this is cause for enthusiasm, Dell’Oro Group also commented that an optimistic outlook could see that figure grow by 50% within the same period, meaning Open Ran’s revenues could reach a whopping $15bn by 2025. Stefan Pongratz, Vice President and analyst with the Dell’Oro Group, commented that if momentum continues at its current rate then Open RAN is here to stay.

Being a specialist Open RAN recruitment agency, we certainly agree with Mr Pongratz in that there is a lot of momentum particularly around the recruitment of Open RAN jobs across the globe. On LinkedIn alone, there are currently 178 active Open RAN jobs, 79% of which were posted in the last month and 43% posted in the past week. The number of active Open RAN jobs on LinkedIn has increased by 7.2% since our last Open RAN market update three months ago. Here at First Point Group, we concur with the data shown on LinkedIn and have seen the number of Open RAN jobs increase in Dallas, London, across the major cities in mainland Europe, Dubai, Shenzen, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

A view of Open RAN recruitment from around the world.

Sam Shen from our Dallas office commented:  In the US, we’ve seen lots of OpenRAN related hiring activities with some of our clients – whether it is in the area of R&D , network rollout, product line management, or solution architect roles. First Point Group is well-positioned to source strong candidates to join our clients. The market is HOT and bubbling.”

Phil Jones from our London office said: “The pace of demand for top talent continues. The UK telecoms recruitment market is very busy at the moment, with OpenRAN requirements right at the centre of this. We remain on the hunt for exceptional candidates in Design, Development, and Pre-Sales to join our multinational clients.”

Chris Lamb from our Hong Kong Office commented: “Several of our clients in Asia have asked for our assistance locating talent with disaggregated network experience. They say this is crucial to their business strategy and enable them to compete with some of the traditional telco players. This has ranged from candidates with R&D experience, to sales and delivery talent, it feels like a sea change. Talent with OpenRAN experience is scarce, but luckily we have built up a good network of passive candidates.”

What’s next for Open RAN?

What’s interesting to note is that the report released by Dell’Oro also states that “Open RAN revenues are expected to account for more than 10% of the overall RAN market by 2025, reflecting healthy traction in multiple regions with both basic and advanced radios.” There are clearly huge growth plans for Open RAN. The report also states “Open RAN Massive MIMO projections have been revised upward to reflect the improved competitive landscape and the improved market sentiment with upper mid-band Open RAN.

However, Open RAN’s development is not without its challenges. As reported in Light Reading recently, The O-RAN alliance risks non-compliance with US law due to 44 of its members are on a US “naughty list or another”. As quoted in the same article “sharing American expertise or technology with these companies could land other members in trouble. Sufficiently concerned, Nokia even paused its technical activity in the group.” Not all Organisations have been put off by the Open RAN warning. Dell Technologies, for example, are participating in many Open RAN groups and as Dennis Hoffman, SVP and GM of Dell Technologies, recently stated “The mega-trend is marching on…It is so much bigger than one company,” he said of the trend. “The ecosystem is developing to create options.”

Whilst Open-RAN is clearly growing from strength-to-strength, there will continue to be challenges along the way as with any new journey. However, for the development of the industry and the opportunities now available for telecoms professionals, Open RAN brings about some very exciting times.