For the fourth consecutive year, Ericsson has been ranked as the leader in the Frost Radar 5G Network Infrastructure Market 2024 analysis, highlighting the impact of the company’s strategy to meet the evolving needs of communications service providers

Maintaining top ranking in the Frost Radar™ report over the past years has shown that Ericsson’s investments in R&D and across a wide product portfolio – which includes all areas of 5G network infrastructure as well as previous generations of network infrastructure – is valued in a market where technology is constantly evolving.

The report has also acknowledged Ericsson’s sustained focus on offering the latest and lightest energy-saving products and solutions. It also touched on the company’s Open RAN plans.

Fredrik Jejdling, Executive Vice President and Head of Networks at Ericsson, says: “The latest Frost Radar report highlights our unwavering commitment to innovation and technology leadership through the most competitive portfolio. In a challenging market, we remain focused on our customers and move forward with even greater determination.”

Frost Radar graph: 5G Network Infrastructure, 2024

Commenting on Ericsson’s top ranking, Troy Morley, Industry Principal, at Frost & Sullivan’s Information & Communication Technology group, says: “Ericsson has done an excellent job keeping its current customers and adding new customers, including significant replacement wins over competitors. Ericsson has a significant pipeline of customers that have yet to move to 5G but will over the coming years.”

Ericsson currently powers *160 live 5G networks in 68 countries, which is the highest level that Frost & Sullivan has seen publicly reported.

“Ericsson’s strategy continues to center on CSPs’ evolving needs in all areas of the world,” Morley says. “However, with its 2020 acquisition of Cradlepoint, Ericsson also is expanding its role with enterprise customers.”

The report has also discussed the importance of the open and virtual RAN movement and the belief that eventually open and virtual RAN will be the norm. “Ericsson’s step into offering Open RAN solutions in 2024 will help make this movement a reality,” Morley says. “The company plans to offer O-RAN-compliant solutions in 2024; Frost & Sullivan believes this will result in significant growth in open and virtual RAN revenue.”

Commenting further on the report, Morley says: “Energy efficiency has been a buzzword for a few years and Ericsson continues to tout solutions that are smaller and lighter and that save energy, answering its customers’ needs. This will continue with its traditional RAN solutions and accelerate with its new Open RAN offerings.”

The Frost Radar report measures growth rates in addition to absolute revenue and combines them with several other factors to measure companies’ performance along the Growth Index. The report also measures innovation for each company by assessing its product portfolio, the scalability of its innovations, the efficacy of its R&D strategy, and several other factors.

The latest report from business consulting firm Frost & Sullivan reaffirms Ericsson’s leadership in the 5G network infrastructure market, which spans radio access networks (RAN), transport networks, and core networks.