Dell'Oro Reports Q1 Declines in Transmission Gear and RAN Markets

Microwave transmission equipment revenue declined 8% year over year worldwide in Q1, Dell’Oro Group said Monday. “This was a tough quarter” for the sector, said Jimmy Yu, Dell’Oro vice president: “We continue to believe the market environment will strengthen as the year unfolds, but the first half of 2024 is now projected to be much weaker than we initially anticipated.” Lower demand for mobile backhaul drove the decline, the report said. The radio access network equipment market continues to struggle, Dell’Oro said in a report last week. It called the market “a disaster.” The RAN market, including baseband and radio hardware and software, but excluding services, fell as much as 30% in 1Q, the firm said. “We’ve been monitoring the RAN market since … 2000, and the contraction experienced in the first quarter marked the steepest decline in our entire history of covering this market,” Dell’Oro Vice President Stefan Pongratz said. The top five suppliers in Q1, based on worldwide revenue, were Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Samsung, the report said.