Dell’Oro Group Reports Open Fronthaul Gains and Cloud RAN Forecast Downturn

Dell’Oro Group’s August 2026 Open RAN research note says Open Fronthaul adoption is moving toward preferred-interface status, while Cloud RAN and multi-vendor RAN follow different adoption paths tied to deployment economics and operator priorities.

Core message

Stefan Pongratz of Dell’Oro Group said, “Open RAN is increasingly becoming a story about interface standardization rather than supplier diversification,” and he tied near-term outcomes to interface direction and compute economics.

The note adds that Open Fronthaul is positioned to become a preferred interface among major non-Chinese RAN suppliers, even as radios and basebands often remain from the same vendor.

Fronthaul and interface standardization

The report says Open Fronthaul continues to gain traction and is expected to become the preferred interface across next-generation RAN platforms.

It also states near-term adoption has progressed more gradually than previously anticipated.

Cloud RAN forecast

Dell’Oro Group revised its Cloud RAN forecast downward, while also stating virtualization remains part of the long-term RAN roadmap.

The note says adoption will increasingly depend on deployment economics, silicon choices, and architecture decisions rather than being treated as the default with an “6G upgrade cycle.”

Multi-vendor RAN outlook

The note says the multi-vendor RAN outlook remains subdued.

It also states that broader Open Fronthaul adoption will not significantly alter RAN supplier concentration because most deployments will continue to use radios and basebands from the same supplier.

Market coverage updates

This edition adds quarterly Open RAN and Virtualized RAN vendor market share tracking alongside updated long-term forecasts.

The note also reiterates that the long-term Open RAN outlook remains largely unchanged.

This Analyst Signals brief reflects a neutral, fact-based summary of the original research note.