Huawei more dominant in telecom networking than ever – Dell’Oro

• H1 2020 telecom equipment market grew in value
• Massive investments in China benefited local vendors
• Huawei grew its market share to become an even more dominant #1 vendor

Despite the best efforts of the US administration, Chinese vendor Huawei has grown its share of the global telecoms infrastructure market and is now more than twice as big as its nearest rival, according to trusted market research firm Dell’Oro, which calculates that the market grew in value by 4% in the first six months of 2020.

According to Dell’Oro, Huawei commanded 31% of the total spend on telecoms networking gear – comprising Broadband Access, Microwave & Optical Transport, Mobile Core & Radio Access Network, SP Router & Carrier Ethernet Switch equipment – during the first half of this year, up from 28% during the same period a year earlier. (See this Dell'Oro blog for the full details.)

Nokia is still in second place, but its market share was down to 14% from the 16% share it commanded in H1 2019. That share may be hit further if the market reading of Verizon’s 5G vendor selection process is accurate. (See Samsung lands $6.6 billion 5G deal at Verizon.)

Ericsson is just behind, also on 14%, with no change from a year earlier, while ZTE grew its global share to 11% from 9% a year earlier. 

Both Huawei and ZTE benefitted from massive 5G investments in China during the first half of 2020. (See China supercharges its 5G investments.) 

Cisco’s share dipped to 6% from 7%, while Ciena and Samsung came in as the 6^th and 7^th largest vendors in H1, as the chart below shows.

The chart also shows Huawei's extraordinary growth trajectory during the past six years and how the fortunes of the European vendors have changed.

The overall market growth was driven by higher-than-expected spending during the second quarter as supply chain disruptions caused by the Covid-19 outbreak settled down and spending in China rocketed, according to the Dell’Oro team.

The research house expects that positive trend to continue during the second half of the year and drive an overall 5% year-on-year growth in the global telecoms equipment market, even though individual companies might be feeling some pain in their own particular markets. (See Ciena preps for hit from Covid-19.) 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV