Chinese standalone (SA) 5G deployments propelled global mobile core network revenue in Q1, with ZTE reaping the greatest benefit of projects completed in the nation during the period, Dell’Oro Group declared.
The research company raised its full-year forecast after overall mobile core network revenue rose 32 per cent year-on-year. It stated the figure in China was up 122 per cent, with the rest of the world growing 12 per cent.
Dell’Oro Group research director Dave Bolan said a number of “major projects” in China completed in Q1, “mostly beneficial to ZTE”. Other drivers in the nation were a switch from virtual to cloud-native network functions “and migration of subscribers from 4G handsets to 5G”.
Figures released by the three major operators in China showed collective 5G network subscribers hit 1.05 billion at end-March, up 18.6 per cent.
Bolan suggested other regions could rank higher across the rest of 2025, highlighting planned SA 5G launches by Orange in France and Bharti Airtel in India among the moves expected to drive annual mobile core network revenue gains of 15 per cent.
“In addition, IMS Core is beginning to show continued growth as more 3G networks sunset”, Bolan stated.
The analyst expects cloud-native network function upgrades to fuel a 5 per cent annual rise in IMS Core revenue.