The latest numbers from telecoms market tracker Dell’Oro Group reveal a healthy contribution from 5G to the core network market.

In the second quarter of this year 5G Core market (5GC) revenues accounted for almost 15% of total global mobile core network revenues. On the back of that Dell’Oro now reckons total 5GC global revenues will top a billion bucks for the year, driven largely by Chinese 5G fever.

“This is the first quarter vendors started to report 5GC revenues, and revenues came in surprisingly strong,” said David Bolan of Dell’Oro. “Huawei and ZTE led the charge, making them the first and second-ranked vendors for 5GC in 2Q20. Mavenir also surprised with 5GC revenues. The ramp-up in the second half of 2020 has already begun, with T-Mobile commercially launching its 5G Standalone network in August, recognizing Cisco and Nokia, as their 5GC suppliers.

“Other service providers expected to launch nationwide 5G Standalone networks in the second half of 2020 include the three service providers in China, which named Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson and Nokia as their 5GC suppliers, and the South Korean service providers, with Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung, widely expected to be the 5GC suppliers.”

Another datapoint of note in the Dell’Oro announcement was that Network Function Virtualization exceeded 50% for the first time in 2Q20. 50% of what, is not clear, all network functions maybe? Either way is serves as an encouraging sign that virtualization is rapidly maturing in telecoms, after years of having its potential hyped.