Huawei continues to lose share of booming global telecoms equipment market

Telecoms analyst firm Dell’Oro has published its Q1 21 numbers for the overall equipment market and they show Ericsson and Nokia continuing to close the gap with Huawei.

The scope of the data covers Broadband Access, Microwave & Optical Transport, Mobile Core & Radio Access Network, SP Router & Switch kit. Dell’Oro reckons revenues for the sector jumped an impressive 15% year-on-year in the quarter, although it should be noted that Q1 2020 was when the world was shutting down due to the Covid pandemic.

As you can see in the chart below, Huawei’s global market share peaked at the start of 2020 and has been falling significantly since then. Pretty much all other major vendors, bar ZTE and Ciena seem to have benefitted from Huawei’s slide and the signs are that Huawei’s non-China share will continue to fall off a cliff.

“At a high level, the suppliers did not report any material impact from the ongoing supply chain shortages in the first quarter,” notes the blog announcing the data. “At the same time, multiple vendors did indicate that the visibility going into the second half is more limited.

“Overall, the Dell’Oro analyst team is adjusting the aggregate forecast upward and now project the total telecom equipment market to advance 5% to 10% in 2021, up from 3% to 5% with the last forecast.”

The biggest regional drivers were apparently North America and Asia Pacific which, while no great surprise, serves as another reminder of the extent to which Europe is dragging its feet on 5G. It will presumption that it will get there eventually is probably one of the reasons behind the upgraded forecast, as well as the welcome news that the telecoms sector seems to be coping well with the chip drought.