According to a report released yesterday by Mobile Experts titled “Macro and Massive MIMO Base Station Transceivers 2024,” the next wave of 5G deployment will be in the FR3 frequency bands (X-band: ranges from 8 to 12 GHz; Ku-band: spans from 12 to 18 GHz; K-band: extends from 18 to 27 GHz). The report includes details of massive MIMO configurations to be used in various world regions to augment the capacity of the 5G network. The base station forecast in the analysis focuses on the quantity of radio hardware to be shipped and the details of technical factors.
In the Base Station report, Mobile Experts has been able to identify specific bands and MIMO configurations that are in active development by the major network vendors. The company said by staying close to component vendors and engineers in the R&D lab, it has been able to extract some meaningful details about the architecture of next-generation base stations.
A second report was also released at the same time, titled “RAN Revenue and CAPEX 2024,” with detailed market share analysis of the top 30 suppliers in the Radio Access Network market and analysis of revenue trends. The RAN Revenue forecast focuses on the shift in revenue from dedicated hardware to software, and from telco networks to private networks over the next five years.
The RAN report indicates the decline of the high-power base station market and its replacement by AI upgrades, small cells, mm-wave, and other new ways to enhance mobile capacity. New deployment in the FR3 frequency range will be unable to satisfy growing demand for mobile data, according to Principal Analyst Joe Madden, so the operators are turning to new approaches.
“Recent developments in the market have put us in a position to be able to predict base station deployment through 2029, and we lay it out in clear, insightful illustrations in these two reports,” Madden said. “In particular, we highlight some bright spots in the market where new growth is happening.”
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