The business technology community is at a critical juncture in 2024. Global market pressures are starting to ease, but persistent geopolitical threats are somewhat hindering progress.
As a result, telecom network providers and their customers are under pressure to make strategic near-term decisions to drive positive impact and ROI within their organizations.
"The rapid rise of private cellular, huge growth in 5G mMIMO radio deployments, and a big bet on network slicing are just some of the many changes on the horizon of which companies and organizations must be aware to make mid-course corrections or complete roadmaps," said Stuart Carlaw, chief research officer at ABI Research.
Mobile Wireless Market Development
The total addressable market for private networks, encompassing elements such as the Radio Access Network (RAN), Mobile-access Edge Computing (MEC), the core, and professional services, is poised to grow significantly.
Anticipated to surge from $6.1 billion in 2023 to surpass $82 billion by 2030, this growth trajectory will be predominantly fueled by new network deployments throughout the decade's conclusion.
"The driving force behind this trend is the enthusiastic anticipation among enterprises for advanced features like Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC), ensuring a remarkably high level of network availability, reliability, and notably low latencies," explains ABI Research principal analyst Leo Gergs.
Massive Multiple Input, Multiple Output (mMIMO) has long been an integral part of fifth-generation (5G) deployment strategies and will continue to be deployed at pace.
5G mMIMO deployments are expected to reach just under a 43 million installed base by 2028, increasing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 39.7 percent during that time frame.
"Its ability to leverage multi-antenna technologies such as spatial multiplexing and beamforming means that it can improve coverage, capacity, and user throughput," says ABI Research analyst Larbi Belkhit.
Service provider revenue from network slicing will drastically increase with an above 90 percent CAGR between 2022 and 2028. The 5G mobile transformation still has plenty of untapped capital opportunities, and network slicing remains at the fore among them.
Communication Service Providers (CSPs) can personalize network services for customers' and enterprises' specific needs in a highly flexible and streamlined way. For instance, by designating separate network slices for low-latency gaming and low-bandwidth devices.
The network slicing market is driven by further progress in 5G transformation, cloudification, and new network demands for Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as Virtual Reality (VR) headsets.
Outlook for Wireless Network Services Growth
Revenue gains are primarily from connectivity provisioning — the role of CSPs in preparing, commissioning, and operating the network slices. However, there will also be significant revenue growth in auxiliary services and operations.
"Our unique, deep, comprehensive, relevant, and timely forecasts provide our clients with the tools to make better decisions when it matters most. We look forward to supporting our clients in 2024 as they outperform their competition," Carlaw concludes.
That said, I believe the business technology market is poised for a rebound in 2024 as global pressures ease. However, geopolitical uncertainty lingers, creating a critical decision point for all leaders. They must carefully navigate this evolving landscape to maximize wireless technology benefits.