According to a recent report from EJI Wireless Research the shipments of macro-cell radio transceivers (TRx) for remote radio units (RRU) and massive MIMO antenna radio systems (MM-ARS) supporting 2G, 3G, 4G, 4,5G, 4,9G, and 5G NR were up by 24% in 2017.
The TRx report, titled, “Global Macro-cell Radio Transceiver (TRx) Market Analysis and Forecast, 2018-2022 14th Edition” is the third in mobile radio access network (RAN) series of market research reports by EJI and complements the recently published RRU and digital baseband unit (BBU) reports.
EJL Wireless Research is forecasting that the macro-cell TRx market will more than double in shipments in 2018 due to initial 5G NR massive MIMO deployments, offsetting a 28% decline in LTE TRx demand. Regarding market share for the mobile radio access network (RAN) wireless equipment suppliers, the research company believes that the recently reinstated U.S. Department of Commerce Export Ban on ZTE Corporation may significantly alter the market share within the industry and would be potentially beneficial for Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia in China, the EMEA region and across Asia Pacific.
Their current outlook for 2018 is moderately conservative based upon timing of 5G NR in the U.S. and NB-IoT upgrades in China. The company forecasts that the microwave/mm-wave TRx shipments for 5G NR will capture 49% of total TRx shipments in 2018 and will exceed 200 million units annually by 2022.
