5G Infrastructure Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Communication Infrastructure (RAN, Transport Technologies, and Core Technologies), By Spectrum Band (Low Band (<1 GHz), Mid Band (1-6GHz), And High Band (24-40 GHz)), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027

The global 5G infrastructure market size was USD 1.25 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 80.06 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 71.0% during the forecast period.  

The 5G infrastructure comprises radio access network (RAN), core network, and transport technology to offer high throughput, low latency, high mobility, and high connection density. The emergence of 5G is expected to create several opportunities for telecom operators, enterprises, stakeholders, as well as consumers. For instance, deploying 5G is expected to assist telecom operators in adopting advanced connectivity and further aid in collaborating with various sectors such as retail, finance, healthcare, and transport to deliver rich and enhanced services to businesses and consumers. 

The emerging technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence, the internet of things (IoT), and connected cars, among others need fast and efficient communication infrastructure. This is supporting the growth of 5G network infrastructure across the globe. Considering the 5G capabilities, the hardware companies are focusing on providing 5G enabled devices. For instance, ZTE Corporation is expected to launch its first 5G phone ZTE Axon 20 5G, in September 2020. The company is expected to commercialize its phone in China, the Nordic countries, and the Middle East.

COVID-19 Pandemic to Push the 5G Infrastructure Roll-Out Further

The pandemic has halted the progression of the 5G infrastructure in several countries. The measures taken to curb the spread of the disease have affected the timing of the 5G infrastructure standard finalization and are expected to be held at the end of 2020. With the ongoing challenges of coronavirus, several countries such as Spain, France, India, Austria, and the US have postponed their auction for the 5G spectrum. For instance, the Department of Telecommunication of India has postponed its spectrum auction for the year 2021. This development has adversely affected numerous vendors and telecommunication operators present in the business.

Few vendors are focusing on an aggressive 5G rollout plan in the year 2020-2021 owing to the capabilities of 5G to serve various sectors during this crisis. In the healthcare sector, a 5G smart robot can assist healthcare in conducting remote treatment. For instance, in China, Wuhan, several hospitals are using a 5G network to provide real-time assistance to patients in remote areas. Thus, 5G has a vast potential to support during crises. However, the delay in the 5G deployment is limiting its use. The market is expected to gain exponential growth post the pandemic.

LATEST TRENDS

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Network Slicing to Pave Way for Adoption of 5G Network

Network slicing is the use of network virtualization to split single network connections into several virtual connections to deliver different volumes of resources to different types of traffic. They assist mobile operators and telecom vendors to provide portions of their networks for specific customer use cases such as the IoT factory, smart home, the smart energy grid, connected cars, among others. Network slicing is a key tool for the provider to address the different requirements of the enterprises. The technique allows the provider to create a dedicated virtual network as per the specific use case or customer service needs. For instance, the network requirement for healthcare providers will be vastly different from smart agriculture needs. It provides higher security for mission-critical services. When the network slices are reserved for specific services, they enhance the reliability and offer simplification.

According to the 2018 GSMA Intelligence IoT Enterprise Survey, 49% of enterprises stated that network slicing is likely to boost the deployment of 5G for IoT applications. Thus, the capabilities of network slicing are likely to propel the growth of the market.

DRIVING FACTORS

Growing IoT Connected Devices to Augment the Demand for 5G Technology

The internet of things is expected to connect 50 billion devices by 2020, according to a report, by the Alliance for the Internet of Things Innovation (AIOTI). The technology has a vast scope across several industry verticals, including manufacturing, smart city, logistics, healthcare, and automotive, among others. It requires efficient communication infrastructure along with reliable connections with minimum latency. As of today, communication networks are providing the required infrastructure with their respective strengths and weaknesses. The introduction of 5G is expected to cater to the growing advanced infrastructure demand.

5G offers techniques like network function virtualization and network slicing that helps in providing customer-specific networks. Thus, 5G architecture can offer customized infrastructure for IoT applications to boost the efficiency of the industry. For instance, Industry 4.0 fully depends on robotics and moving robots to increase the efficiency of the plant. With the adoption of 5G, IoT connected devices can use a dedicated network line with a high wireless data transfer that offers real-time information. This will automate the shop-floor event by enhancing the efficiency of the manufacturer. Similarly, it also has various applications across the verticals such as precision livestock farming, intelligent emergency response systems, automated valet parking, and communication in car manufacturing. Thus, the growing IoT implementation is likely to boost the demand for this infrastructure.

Need for Ultra-Low Latency is expected to Drive the 5G Infrastructure Market

The implementation of advanced concepts such as the internet of things (IoT), connected devices, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, among others, is rapidly increasing. However, the industries are not being able to utilize the full potential of these technologies owing to the high latency issue. 5G offers ultra-low latency capabilities to provide an advanced user experience.

The low latency capabilities of 5G are boosting its demand across the mission-critical application. One of the major applications of low latency could be telemedicine, where hospitals and healthcare providers can access real-time data without any delay during a life-critical situation.  The low latency rate of this technology is likely to lead to remote robotic surgeries becoming a reality in the near future. Similarly, in the manufacturing industries, 5G can help the manufacturers to the scale-up connected robotic workforce. This is expected to boost the efficiency of the Industrial IoT devices and connected machines.

5G is expected to improve assisted driving and transport services with real-time data alerts. The technology will provide data regarding the traffic situation along with insured safety during assisted driving.  Besides, the low latency can be a game-changer in virtual and augmented reality applications. The technology is expected to provide a highly immersive experience to the user with its fast data transmission features. This is likely to fuel the demand for this infrastructure.

RESTRAINING FACTORS

Increasing Cybersecurity Threats to Hamper the Market Growth

The chances of cybersecurity threats are likely to increase with the rapid adoption of 5G technology. The increasing connected devices and machines will lead to an increase in cyber-attacks. Also, unlike traditional technologies, 5G offers a direct connection to the cellular network that further increases the chance of direct attack. The attackers can take advantage of such security gaps and come up with advanced attacks. Thus, increasing 5G implementation is expected to increase the number of potential threats. This is likely to hamper the 5G infrastructure market growth.

SEGMENTATION

By Communication Infrastructure Analysis

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Rapidly Growing Data Traffic to Augment the Demand for 5G RAN

Based on the communication infrastructure, the market is categorized as RAN (Radio Access Network), transport technology, and core technology.

The RAN segment is expected to hold the maximum share as this concept can cater to a wide range of spectrum bands. RAN is further segmented into C-RAN/V-RAN, small cell, and massive MIMO. The small cell segment is expected to grow exponentially owing to its capabilities of increasing network capacity. The 5G small cell helps the operator to connect the maximum number of smartphones in a high user density area.

The rising mobile data traffic and the increasing demand for high-bandwidth will subsequently lead to an increase in the demand for small cells. Similarly, the growing demand for new wireless network architecture is likely to drive the demand for cloud-RAN. Virtual-RAN offers a better user experience by providing improved network performance. This is expected to boost the demand for C-RAN and V-RAN in 5G infrastructure.

The transport technology segment is further bifurcated into software-defined networking (SDN) and network slicing. Software-defined networking is expected to lead the segment. The centralized control plane capabilities of SDN provide end to end visibility of network resources, which helps in maintaining and establishing optimized connectivity. Likewise, the capability of network slicing to provide a tailored customer-specific network to support new business models is likely to drive its growth.

The core technology is bifurcated into network function virtualization (NFV) and mobile edge computing. The growing requirement of low latency for essential IoT applications is expected to drive the growth of the mobile edge computing segment during the forecast period.

By Spectrum Band Analysis

Increasing Demand for Enhanced Coverage is likely to Fuel the Demand for Mid Band Spectrum

Based on the spectrum band, the market is segmented into low band (<1 GHz), mid band (1-6GHz), and high band (24-40GHz).

The mid band (1-6GHz) segment is expected to capture the maximum share of the segment during the forecast period. The mid band offers better indoor and outdoor coverage with high data rates. For the initial deployment of 5G, the mid band spectrum holds vast potential for international harmonization. The mid band is suitable for shorter network coverage, such as the city’s mobile network coverage and along the interstate highways.

The high band (24-40GHz) segment is expected to experience rapid growth during the forecast period owing to its potential to support ultra-high speed of 5G. This spectrum caters to the high concentration of users over a short distance. The high band is suitable for outdoor requirements such as train and bus stations, sports venues, manufacturing plants, hospitals, landmarks, and more.

Owing to exceptional coverage, the low band (<1 GHz) is likely to showcase steady growth during the forecast period.

REGIONAL INSIGHTS

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By region, the market has been analyzed across five major regions namely North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America.

Asia Pacific is expected to dominate with the highest market share during the forecast period. The presence of several 5G and communication services providers is expected to drive the demand in the region. China is expected to dominate the market and account for over half of the overall 5G infrastructure market share in 2019. According to a report by GSMA, China is projected to witness 450 million 5G connections by 2025. Similarly, China Mobile and China Unicom are expected to achieve large scale commercialization by the end of 2020. The country, with its initiative “Made in China 2025”, aims to lead advanced technologies such as industrial IoT, cloud computing, and AI. This is expected to fuel the demand for 5G infrastructure during the forecast period.

According to the GSM Association, China aims to invest USD 184 billion in 5G by 2025. Japan is expected to grow exponentially during the forecast period owing to the massive investments in 5G technology. In 2019, the Japanese government approved the investment worth USD 14.4 billion from NTT Docomo, KDDI, SoftBank, and Rakuten to build a 5G wireless network. Similarly, in India, to boost Digital India, make in India, Smart Cities & Smart Village missions, the government has launched 5G India 2020 forum.

Europe is expected to experience an exponential CAGR during the forecast period owing to the increasing government policies and associated regulations. For instance, in 2016, the European Commission launched 5G for Europe Action Plan and established the 5G Infrastructure Public-Private Partnership. According to GSMA, Europe will achieve 203 million 5G connections by 2025.

North America is likely to hold a major market share following Asia Pacific. The US is expected to witness rapid growth owing to increasing demand for high bandwidth and rising data traffic. The presence of several key 5G infrastructure providers is likely to fuel the product demand in this region. The increasing adoption of technologies such as artificial intelligence, and augmented and virtual reality, and IoT will aid the market in the US.

The Middle East and Africa region is expected to showcase significant growth during the forecast period. GCC is expected to lead the market owing to the government initiative such as Abu Dhabi Vision 2030. The growing demand for driverless cars, IoT, and robotic & artificial intelligence is boosting the demand for 5G in the Gulf region.

The increasing initiatives to deploy advanced technologies in Latin America are expected to enhance the growth opportunities of the market.

KEY INDUSTRY PLAYERS

Key Players Focused on Offering Advanced 5G Infrastructure Solutions

Key players such as Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Qualcomm Technologies, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., Nokia Network, Dell EMC, and ZTE Corporation are collaborating with other players to expand their global presence. The companies are offering advanced solutions, and hardware will contribute to the growth of this market. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is expanding its 5G presence by strategically collaborating with infrastructure and network providers across the globe. The company is launching innovative solutions inter-band carrier aggregation, mobile NR core and integrated radio solutions, and more. It is also offering cloud-based deployment solutions for an efficient and fast connection.

July 2020 – Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. launched 5G Radio Access Network (vRAN), a fully-virtualized solution. This software-based 5G radio infrastructure offers cost savings, improved efficiencies, and management benefits to the mobile operator.

June 2019 – AT&T collaborated with IBM Corporation to provide 5G wireless networking and edge computing for businesses. IBM Corporation deployed AT&T’s 5G and multi-access edge computing at its Thomas J. Watson Research Center. Through this, the companies will process the data on the client’s site instead of the public network.

LIST OF KEY COMPANIES PROFILED:

• AT&T (California, United States)


• Verizon Ltd. (New York, United States)


• CommScope Inc. (North Carolina, United States)


• Corning Incorporated (New York, United States)


• Nokia Network (Espoo, Finland)


• ZTE Corporation (Shenzhen, China)


• Cisco System, Inc. (California, United States)


• NEC Corporation (Tokyo, Japan)


• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) (California, United States)


• Belden Inc. (Missouri, United States)


• Dell EMC (Massachusetts, United States)


• Intel Corporation (California, United States)


• Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Stockholm, Sweden)


• Qualcomm Technologies (California, United States)


• Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Shenzhen, China)


• Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Seoul, South Korea)


• Fujikura Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan)


• Comba Telecom Systems Holdings Ltd. (Hong Kong)


• Alpha Networks Inc. (Hsinchu, Taiwan)

KEY INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS:

• March 2020 – Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. announced that its collaboration with Marvell to enhance infrastructure innovation across radio access network segments. The primary aim of this collaboration is to design advanced radio unit architectures to meet the increasing computer power requirements.


• February 2020 – CommScope Inc. launched a variety of antenna solutions, connectors, and power options to support the rapidly growing 5G rollout. The company aims to provide smart and fast solutions for wireless providers to build the 5G network.

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The market report highlights leading regions across the world to offer a better understanding of the user. Furthermore, the report provides insights into the latest industry trends and analyzes technologies that are being deployed at a rapid pace at the global level. It further highlights some of the growth-stimulating factors and restraints, helping the reader to gain in-depth knowledge about the market.

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