Some 55% of survey respondents said they are seriously considering an O-RAN strategy
Research by U.S. manufacturing services company Jabil has found a growing interest by companies to adopt an Open RAN (O-RAN) approach.
A survey of 193 companies conducted for Jabil by SIS International Research found that 57% of the surveyed companies believed that O-RAN will be ready for widespread deployment alongside 5G within the next two years. Also, 55% of survey respondents report they are seriously considering an O-RAN strategy while another 22% report already having a viable strategy in place. Across the board, survey participants believe that O-RAN will reduce capital and operational expenditures, the survey found.
According to the survey, some 44% of respondents believe cloud service providers including Google Cloud, AWS and Microsoft Azure have a role in O-RAN strategies, while 67%which have an existing strategy for O-RAN stated these companies fit into their plans.
Jabil commissioned SIS International Research to conduct the 2022 5G Technology Trends Survey, which included 193 stakeholders directly involved in the development, implementation or adoption of 5G technologies at leading telecommunications companies in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific.
The survey revealed that 64% of respondents considered that it will take another one to three years before 5G technology will be adopted widely.
However, 65% of respondents cited 5G as a superior technology that will dramatically transform telecommunications, up 16% from a similar poll in 2018.
“Continued growth in 5G complexity and diversity creates a wealth of opportunities as well as obstacles for traditional telco service providers, equipment manufacturers and software developers,” said Emanuele Cavallaro, president of the communications and networking division at Jabil.
More than half of the surveyed firms (59%) believe that the transition to 5G will create opportunities for new telecommunications companies, while 53% said it will deliver new business models, with 32% citing lack of spectrum as the biggest challenge for 5G deployments.
Additional business model challenges for 5G deployments include the creation of subscription models (31%); government regulations (27%); and erosion of market share by OTT providers (25%). Across the board, operational challenges have eased but network mapping (32%) and lack of 5G-enabled devices (31%) still cause problems, according to the survey.
Meanwhile, 93% of respondents believe 5G will foster partnerships between service providers and software or web services companies.
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