RAN Intelligent Controller Market

Global RAN Intelligent Controller Market Size (2024 to 2029)

The size of the global RAN intelligent controller market was worth USD 314.8 million in 2023 and the global market size is expected to be worth USD 6283 million by 2029 from USD 518.48 million in 2024, growing at a CAGR of 64.7% from 2024 to 2029.

Current Scenario of the Global RAN Intelligent Controller Market

In the last few years, the global RAN intelligent controller market has seen promising growth and the trend is likely to accelerate further during the forecast period. The use of a RAN intelligent controller typically reduces the cost needed for infrastructure and mobile operators' operations. This helps in improving the network performance that eventually processes the business agility. The prominence of delivering customized services with the usage of the most advanced technologies elevates the demand for the RAN intelligent controller. In Radion Access Network, it is highly important to manage the network functions by optimizing the baseband communication, which is the best software design that helps in regularizing various network functions that promote low latency applications.

MARKET DRIVERS

Y-o-Y growth in the demand for high-speed and efficient internet connectivity worldwide is majorly propelling the RAN intelligent controller market growth.

Radio Access Network (RAN) is designed specifically using machine learning that enables numerous RAN control cases for anomaly detection and clustering. It is one of the most important software solutions in the overall mobile network to emphasize the connection between the end user's mobile phone and the cloud. The world is advancing in telecommunications. The network functions were just modernized according to the requirements in telecommunication, which is especially important in the future to launch high-speed internet connections at ease. In today’s world, everything is directly or indirectly connected to the internet in day-to-day life. Therefore, the prominence of high-speed and efficient internet connectivity is growing across the world, which is accelerating the growth rate of the RAN intelligent controller market.

Y-o-Y rise in demand to expand the network functions drive the RAN intelligent controller market growth.

The rising demand to expand the network functions with the growing number of people using smartphones with high-speed internet access is ascribed to bolster the RAN intelligent controller market growth. It is reported that by the end of 2022, more than 4.3 billion people owned smartphones. More than 92.3% of people globally use internet access via mobile phones, which is a topmost factor for the market to grow. It is expected that more than 1 billion 5G connections will exist by the end of 2025, which is a great factor that is influencing the need to adopt the RAN intelligent controller to run smooth operations in mobile networking. The growing demand to launch innovative solutions in mobile networking by rapidly adopting the new changes that cost less but promote higher efficiency is adding fuel to the growth rate of the global market.

MARKET RESTRAINTS

High costs and a lack of skilled workforce who can handle the operations of RAN intelligent controllers majorly impede the global market growth.

Though the RAN intelligent controller reduces the overall cost in the mobile networks, the complexity of integrating with the existing network infrastructure is merely very hard, which requires highly skilled professionals to understand the complete structure and then process the operation in the right way. The complex integration of advanced technology and difficulty in finding a highly skilled person to manage various applications according to the advanced technologies slightly degrade the growth rate of the RAN intelligent controller market. The high cost of installing highly new systems with the most advanced technology is not a possible task for small- and medium-scale industries in the current scenario due to the evolving economic crisis across the world. This factor is also attributed to impeding the growth rate of the RAN intelligent controller market.  In addition to this, the rising concern over security issues and cyber-attacks are degrading the use of most advanced technologies and is likely to slow down the growth rate of the RAN intelligent controller market.

MARKET OPPORTUNITIES

The importance of delivering the best network performance using the most advanced technologies is the potential to leverage the growth rate of the RAN intelligent controller market in the coming years. The importance of connecting with the 5G networks at ease using this solution and other integrity techniques is likely to promote the growth rate of the market. The capability to renovate the functions of the Near-RT RIC with the new guidelines from the artificial intelligence and machine learning procedures will eventually progress overall application that will eventually level up the growth rate of the RAN intelligent controller market. The increasing urban population is steadily raising the demand for high-speed internet connectivity with the rising usage of smartphones and laptops.

MARKET CHALLENGES

The key market participants are facing random challenges in propagating the advantages of the RAN intelligent controller with highly advanced techniques. Experts believe that RIC (RAN Intelligent Controller) is a critical aspect of the RAN, which is solely degrading the global market growth. Lack of support from government authorities in a few undeveloped countries where the development of telecommunications is slightly low compared with highly developed countries is limiting the growth rate of the market.

REPORT COVERAGE

SEGMENTAL ANALYSIS

Global RAN Intelligent Controller Market Analysis By Function

The non-RT RIC segment had the leading share of the global RAN intelligent controller market in 2023. The non-RT RIC is the connection between the RAN elements and resources that are totally designed using the most advanced technologies like AI/ML. The surging need for the launch of innovative designs in the RAN infrastructure shall level up the growth rate of the RAN intelligent controller in the coming period. The near-RT RIC segment is gearing up with the fastest growth rate during the forecast period. The near-RT RIC is completely responsible for the edge control of RAN nodes and resources.  The near RT RIC has faster response downtime than the non-RT RIC, which is a positive sign of adopting these types of functions that reside in the edge cloud or regional cloud.

Global RAN Intelligent Controller Market Analysis By Component

The services segment is the most lucrative segment and is anticipated to showcase the fastest CAGR during the forecast period in the global RAN intelligent controller market. On the other hand, the platform component segment is esteemed to hold the highest share of the market throughout the forecast period.

Global RAN Intelligent Controller Market Analysis By Application

The rApps segment is expected to account for a significant share of the global RAN intelligent controller market during the forecast period. This application is one of the finest in managing the Ran automation and management cases. The increasing number of mobile networks with 5G internet services is substantially elevating the growth rate of the RAN intelligent controller market. It basically runs with the non-RT- RIC function mode. xApps is featured with the near RT RIC functioning type that enhances the spectrum efficiency.

Global RAN Intelligent Controller Market Analysis By Technology

The 4G segment is expected to account for the largest share of the RAN intelligent controller market, whereas 5G technology is merely to hit the highest CAGR during the forecast period. 4G technology is greatly ruling across the world. 5G was launched recently and has yet to expand its services in some parts of the world in the coming years.

REGIONAL ANALYSIS

North America held the largest share of the global RAN intelligent controller market in 2023.

The domination of North America is projected to continue in the RAN intelligent controller market throughout the forecast period owing to the rising competition between the mobile networks to produce high-quality services that gain profits by attracting a huge number of customers. The presence of leading companies in the US is attributed to escalating the growth rate of the RAN intelligent controller market. The launch of innovative applications to expand their product portfolio using different strategies by the key players is likely to outrage the market’s growth rate in the North American region. The RAN intelligent controllers play an important role in modernizing the network resources that are likely to showcase huge growth opportunities for the market in the coming years.

Asia-Pacific is estimated to hold a prominent share of the global market during the forecast period.

The rising population in emerging countries like India and China is majorly leveling up the growth rate of the market. The common goal to reach the demand to engrave the best internet connectivity by clearly adopting the new technologies in the network is ascribed to the surge in the market’s growth rate. The demand to introduce high-quality mobile network services at minimal cost is circulating across the region, which is fuelling the growth rate of the market to the next level.

Europe is likely to account for a substantial share of the global market in the coming years.

Rising per capita income and government support through investments to improve the standards of internet access by adopting various new technologies are quietly boosting the growth rate of the market. The prominence of internet users in European countries is vigorously increasing year on year. It is estimated that there will be 307 million internet users by the end of 2028 in the region, where there were 296 million internet users in 2023.

Latin America and the Middle East & Africa are likely to grow at a steady pace during the foreseen years. The strategies of major market participants to tie up with the network operators in these regions are set to accelerate the growth rate of the market in the coming years.

KEY PLAYERS IN THE GLOBAL RAN INTELLIGENT CONTROLLER MARKET

Nokia Corporation, VMware, Inc., Intel Corporation, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Samsung Group), Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.), Cisco Systems, Inc., ZTE Corporation, NEC Corporation, Juniper Networks, Inc. and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson are a few of the prominent companies in the global RAN intelligent controller market.

RECENT HAPPENINGS IN THE GLOBAL MARKET

• In 2024, NEC Corporation has introduced a new technology to dynamically control 5G Radio Access Network by receiving the status of each user terminals. The RAN autonomous optimization technology improves the productivity of applications like controlling robots and vehicles through remote operators. The company is in plans to integrate this technology with the RNA intelligent controller and conduct demonstration tests by March 2025.
• In March 2023, Nokia, one of the leading vendors in RAN to offer native support for O-RAN E2. Nokia and AT&T showcased positive results in leveraging the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities with the Near real-time xApps to deliver RAN programmability. With the use of the E2 interface, the trials were hugely successful, hosted on the platform, and gave promising signs that they would approach 5G use cases soon.

DETAILED SEGMENTATION OF THE GLOBAL RNA INTELLIGENCE CONTROLLER MARKET INCLUDED IN THIS REPORT

This research report on the global RNA intelligent controller market has been segmented and sub-segmented by function, component, application, technology and region.

By Function

• Non-RT RIC
• Near-RT RIC

By Component

• Platform
• Services

By Application

• rApps
• xApps

By Technology

• 4G
• 5G

By Region

• North America
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• Latin America
• Middle East and Africa