Maintaining top ranking in the Frost Radar™ report, released in May, shows that Ericsson’s investments in research and development (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 also acknowledges 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, said, “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.”

Commenting on Ericsson’s top ranking, Troy Morley, industry principal at Frost & Sullivan’s Information & Communication Technology group, said, “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 162 live 5G networks in 69 countries, which is the highest level that Frost & Sullivan has seen publicly reported.

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

The report also emphasises 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 noted. “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.”

According to Morley, energy efficiency has been a buzzword for 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.

Ericsson’s 5G network infrastructure portfolio comprises 5G RAN, 5G Core, and 5G Transport that address all aspects of 5G deployment – from providing low latency and higher bandwidth to ensuring instant response times for users and lower power consumption per delivered gigabyte for CSPs. Ericsson’s 5G network offering also includes Ericsson Radio System, 5G Carrier Aggregation, Ericsson Spectrum Sharing, network slicing, service automation, and 5G monetisation. CSPs are empowered with 5G solutions that enable the modular approach when switching to the cloud-native 5G network or expanding their network for new business opportunities.

Ericsson's Private 5G networks are tailored to drive Industry 4.0 digitalisation through secure and powerful 4G LTE and 5G standalone (SA) connectivity. This enables organisations to optimise and simplify operations with reliability, flexibility, low latency, and security, along with Ericsson's best-in-class radio portfolio.