Dell'Oro Group reports Open RAN revenue grew in 2025

Preliminary Dell’Oro data show Open Radio Access Network (RAN) revenue returned to double-digit growth in 2025 and Virtual RAN (vRAN) revenue stabilized after a 2022–24 decline, a development relevant to RAN capital planning and vendor strategy.

Market Overview

The Open RAN (O-RAN) Alliance formed in 2018 to “re-shape the RAN industry and ecosystem towards more intelligent, open, virtualized, and interoperable networks,” said the alliance; results since then have been mixed with Open fronthaul increasingly specified as a baseline capability.

Key Findings

Following a roughly 40 percent decline between 2022 and 2024, preliminary findings indicate worldwide Open RAN revenue grew at a double-digit rate in 2025 and virtualized RAN revenue stabilized at a more modest pace.

Segment or Supplier Performance

Vendor rankings changed little overall, though Mavenir shifted focus toward small cells and Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) and NEC prioritized Virtual Radio Access Network (vRAN) and Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO); 1Finity moved up one rank.

Incumbent suppliers maintain hedged positions: Ericsson and Nokia continue to support Open RAN while keeping integrated portfolios, and Ericsson said 160 radio models will be Open-RAN-proven by the end of 2026 while Nokia’s Doksuri radios include Open fronthaul compatibility.

Technology or Trend Analysis

Virtualization remains a pillar of next-generation RAN platforms, and Cloud RAN projections were lowered in the recent five-year forecast while Cloud RAN is expected to account for roughly 15 to 20 percent of the total RAN market by 2030.

The emerging GPU-RAN and software RAN wave has renewed discussion of non-traditional suppliers, but the base case outlook for multi-vendor RAN remains limited and multi-vendor deployments are expected to account for less than 5 percent of total RAN deployments by 2030.

Forecast or Analyst Outlook

Analysts expect Open RAN and vRAN to grow in 2026, with long-term assumptions unchanged and near-term Open RAN revenue projections revised downward while long-term growth expectations strengthened.

The report cites easier year-over-year comparisons and stronger RAN spending in regions with high Open RAN exposure as factors in the 2025 reversal.

The Analyst Signals brief synthesizes the report’s main points and their relevance for technical and procurement leaders. This Analyst Signals brief reflects a neutral, fact-based summary of the original research note.