TrendForce estimates that Huawei, Ericsson, and Nokia will account for 74.5% of the global base station market in 2022. The entire world utilizes the building of 5G networks to meet the needs of individual users and vertical industries and, as the ubiquity of 5Q continues to broaden, its applications cover the medical, education, industry, and agriculture sectors, forming a business model that can be replicated and promoted, and accelerating development of its network scale.
In 2022, China will be the most active in investing in the 5G field with various cities promoting the construction of 5G base stations and integrating 5G into manufacturing. At the same time, they will focus on key industries such as 5G + medical care, industrial IoT, and government affairs to drive the implementation of 5G applications. However, concerns regarding geopolitical tensions in a number of countries mean that open-source networks are seen as the solution to the problem of supplier dependence. Whether in terms of security or cost, open-source software is extremely critical to the development of 5G networks. In addition to improving operational efficiency, it can accelerate network resiliency deployment, but compared with a traditional Radio Access Network (RAN), Open RAN has more security issues. TrendForce believes, with the evolution of 5G deployment towards the core and Open RAN cloud, equipment manufacturers will strengthen network protection mechanisms and detection of RAN threats to reduce risk.
The world's three major base station equipment manufacturers are actively cultivating Central European, Latin American, and African markets.
Looking at industry players, Huawei is actively expanding in markets such as South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Vietnam, and Brazil. Recently, it has partnered with operators such as MTN and Rain in South Africa to build more than 2,500 5G base stations. Ericsson has extended its reach to the UK, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Lithuania, providing 5G private network solutions for BT and Saudi Telecommunication.
Nokia won a ten-year network expansion agreement with Orange in Poland to upgrade its existing network including support for phasing out Orange 3G network equipment and reallocating frequencies to enhance its 4G and 5G coverage and capacity solutions. In addition, Nokia will provide the latest energy saving AirScale products including solutions such as Single RAN, AirScale base stations and 5G massive MIMO antennas. The company has also signed a mid-band 5G network expansion agreement with UScellular in the United States.
Samsung continues to expand its influence in the U.S. telecommunications market, providing 5G equipment to Dish Network, the fourth largest mobile service provider in the United States, including 5G virtualized base stations for national networks and general-purpose servers to load software for realizing base station functions and supporting flexible and efficient network construction and operation. Samsung is also deploying resources in the UK, Japan, Canada, and New Zealand markets.
| Company | 2021 | 2022 (E) |
| Huawei | 30% | 29% |
| Ericsson | 23.5% | 24% |
| Nokia | 20% | 21.5% |
| Samsung | 12.5% | 12% |
| ZTE | 3.5% | 2.5% |
| Others | 10.5% | 11% |
Table 1. Base Station Market Share, 2021-2022
TrendForce indicates that major equipment manufacturers will begin to standardize network energy efficiency evaluations to accelerate green innovation starting from 2022 to help operators build optimal and energy-saving network applications, launch more energy-efficient hardware such as green design RF Chain, and use simplified transmitter/receiver structure and novel network-based architecture design including radio access network (RAN) cloudification and network function virtualization. Taking Huawei as an example, in order to comply with United Nations climate actions, its goal is to reduce carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2040 to meet the growing demand for data traffic and actively build a green and low-carbon network.
