Operators’ requirements for their next-generation RANs: survey results and analysis

This report is based on findings from a survey of 64 Tier 1 and Tier 2 mobile-only or converged telecoms operators that was conducted by Analysys Mason in 4Q 2024. It provides insights into operators’ timelines for the adoption of vRAN and Open RAN architectures, as well as their requirements for their next-generation RANs. It also provides details of the major challenges that operators face when deploying new architectures, and explores the commercial goals that operators want to achieve with their next-generation networks.

The findings show that the next few years could be critical for Open RAN adoption, as long as stakeholders can address the architecture’s major challenges and address operators’ requirements.

Questions answered in this report

• What are operators’ plans for adopting various architectures in their next-generation RANs?
• What are the major challenges that operators are facing in their deployment of vRAN and Open RAN architectures, and how are these evolving?
• What are operators’ requirements for their next-generation RANs, and how can challenger vendors address these?
• What are operators’ requirements for network infrastructure in terms of next-generation RAN AI adoption?

Geographical coverage

• Asia–Pacific: 25 operators
• Europe: 21 operators
• North America: 11 operators
• Rest of the world: 7 operators

All respondents are either planning to adopt Open RAN/vRAN architecture by 2027 or have already deployed it.