Dell’Oro Group revised its outlook for Cloud RAN and Multi-vendor RAN, reflecting slower adoption curves and changing operator priorities. The update follows a reassessment of how Open RAN has progressed since the formation of the Open RAN Alliance in 2018, with mixed results across deployment models and vendor ecosystems.
In its February 2026 Open RAN report, Dell’Oro Group said openness, intelligence, automation, and virtualization continue to define next-generation RAN platforms, but market readiness varies widely. The firm now expects Open RAN to play a meaningful role in the latter stages of 5G and into 6G, while Cloud RAN adoption faces timing challenges and Multi-vendor RAN remains niche.
The revised forecasts reflect ongoing constraints around performance, power efficiency, and cost parity versus purpose-built RAN systems. At the same time, Open Fronthaul is gaining traction as a baseline requirement, improving long-term visibility for Open RAN architectures even as near-term revenue expectations soften.
- Near-term Open RAN revenue expectations moved lower, while long-term growth assumptions improved, driven by the pace of Open Fronthaul deployment and its role as a baseline capability for next-generation RAN platforms.
- Cloud RAN projections were revised downward due to ongoing performance, power, and cost-parity challenges relative to purpose-built RAN, affecting deployment timing rather than long-term viability.
- Multi-vendor RAN is now forecast to represent less than 5% of total RAN by 2030, down from a prior estimate of 5–10%.
“Openness, intelligence, automation, and virtualization remain key pillars in the next-generation RAN platforms,” said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President of RAN market research at Dell’Oro Group. “But the adoption curves vary. The likelihood that Open RAN, Cloud RAN, and Multi-vendor RAN will play a major role in the second half of 5G and from the start with 6G is likely, less likely, and unlikely, respectively.”
🌐 Analysis
The revised outlook aligns with recent operator feedback emphasizing energy efficiency, deterministic performance, and total cost of ownership over architectural purity. While Open RAN continues to influence interface standardization and supplier strategies, incumbent vendors and hyperscale-aligned platforms have moved faster in integrating acceleration, silicon optimization, and system-level power controls. The forecast also reflects broader industry caution around disaggregated RAN economics as 5G investment cycles mature and early 6G planning begins.
