5G Massive MIMO RAN Market Size, Share, Opportunities, And Trends By Architecture (Baseband Unit, Radio Unit), By Band (Sub-6 GHz, MmWave), And By Geography - Forecasts From 2024 To 2029

The global 5G Massive MIMO RAN Market is valued at US$13.748 billion in 2022.

GROWTH DRIVERS

• Deployment of Massive MIMO in 5G Network

5G technology is at its peak at present, more and more people are switching to 5G, as it is fast, reliable, and user-friendly. The massive MIMO RAN technology offers communication service providers a large bandwidth for a powerful 5G experience nationwide. Additionally, the massive MIMO technology can significantly improve systems capacity, but there are some challenges to be tackled while deploying. These challenges are coupled with three aspects of deploying 5G which are network coverage, user experience, and network capabilities.

The increasing demand for 5G and rising investment by companies in this technology are expected to boost the market growth in the projected period. For instance, in February 2024, Ericsson achieved a milestone of deploying 1,00,000 massive MIMO 5G radios for Airtel, across 12 cities within a record time of 500+ days. Since the launch of 5G technology in India, Airtel has been one of the major companies operating in the market.

For instance:

• In October 2022, Qualcomm and Vodafone formed a partnership to collaboratively design and assess the next-generation 5G Open RAN Infrastructure. This innovative infrastructure will be driven by the Qualcomm® X100 5G RAN Accelerator Card and the high-performing Massive MIMO Qualcomm® QRU100 5G RAN Platform. This collaboration between two prominent industry leaders aims to develop, test, and incorporate advanced 5G distributed units (DUs) and Radio Units (RUs) equipped with Massive MIMO capabilities, ultimately facilitating the widespread deployment of Open RAN technology in Europe.

Access to mid-band spectrum

Access to mid-band spectrum has allowed carriers in various nations to implement Massive MIMO technology, resulting in significant network performance improvements. Moreover, some countries have introduced commercial 5G services utilizing mmWave spectrum. The ample spectrum resources available in millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequency bands exceeding 24 GHz offer exceptional capacity, extremely high data throughput, and minimal latency.

• In August 2023, Jio made a significant announcement regarding its nationwide 5G rollout, utilizing the 26GHz mmWave spectrum. The company has fulfilled its minimum deployment requirements in all 22 Licensed Service Areas (LSAs) across various spectrum bands. Jio's mmWave spectrum deployment, combined with Jio's True-5G enhancements through StandAlone deployment, is poised to bring substantial benefits in RAN services.

Remarkable Implementation of 5G Network  

The massive MIMO market finds its primary impetus in the deployment of 5G networks. These 5G networks offer faster data rates, reduced latency, and more reliable network connections, which are highly sought after by both consumers and businesses. This becomes increasingly crucial as the demand for data continues to rise.

According to 5G America, North America stands at the forefront of wireless 5G adoption, boasting a cumulative count of 119 million 5G connections. The penetration of 5G among the population in the North American market is rapidly nearing 32%, signifying significant growth. The region witnessed a remarkable increase of 52 million 5G connections throughout the year, marking a 78% surge from Q4 2021. In total, North America is expected to contribute 215 million 5G connections in 2023, driven by robust 5G smartphone shipments in the United States.

EMERGING OPPORTUNITIES IN THE 5G MASSIVE MIMO RAN MARKET

Giga-MIMO

The Giga-MIMO design leverages significantly more antennas than the 5G massive MIMO, making it possible to enhance mobile communications. Giga-MIMO, which can employ an order of magnitude more antenna elements compared to 5G massive MIMO, opens up broader bandwidth opportunities in the upper mid-band spectrum (ranging from 7 to 24 GHz). By combining the advantages of wide-band millimetre wave (mmWave) and wide-area sub-7 GHz frequencies, Giga-MIMO is poised to unlock new capabilities in the upper mid-band spectrum.

• In May 2023, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC23), Qualcomm demonstrated its Giga-MIMO system, which provides extensive coverage in the 7 GHz to 16 GHz range. Qualcomm is actively working on pioneering end-to-end system solutions known as Giga-MIMO, which harness a multitude of antennas on both the base station and user devices to facilitate wide-area communications in the upper mid-band spectrum.

GEOGRAPHICAL PRESENCE

• In August 2023, in a renewed partnership, Telkomsel (PT Telekomunikasi Selular) and Ericsson are collaborating to expand and enhance their current 4G/5G network infrastructure in Indonesia. Ericsson is equipping Telkomsel's network with its energy-efficient and lightweight Massive MIMO antenna integrated radio, known as AIR 3219. This technology is poised to meet the evolving demands of 5G as well as Fixed Wireless Access and Convergence (FWA/FMC) needs in the future.
• In September 2022, NEC Corporation and Mavenir collaborated to implement extensive Massive MIMO (mMIMO) technology on Orange's experimental 5G standalone (SA) network located at the Orange Gardens campus in Chatillon, near Paris, France. Mavenir's cloud-native Open Virtualized Radio Access Network (Open vRAN) software was integrated into Orange's cloud infrastructure, accompanied by NEC's 32T32R mMIMO active antenna unit (AAU). This deployment aims to provide substantial capacity improvements and extended coverage.

MAJOR PLAYERS IN THE MARKET

Some of the leading players in the market include Ericsson, Samsung, and NEC among others. The product offerings of the major corporations include the following:

5G Massive MIMO RAN Market Scope:

SEGMENTATION

• By Architecture
  • Baseband Unit
  • Radio Unit
• By Band
  • Sub-6 GHz
  • mmWave
• By Geography
  • Americas
    • United States
    • Others
  • EMEA
    • Germany
    • UK
    • Others
  • APAC
    • China
    • Japan
    • South Korea
    • Others