Omdia Puts MEA In RAN Growth Stack As China Weakens
RCR Wireless News wrote that Omdia estimated the global RAN market at about $17 billion in the first half of 2026, with growth outside China led by APAC excluding China, MEA and Latin America.
A $17 billion first-half RAN market is growing mainly outside China, RCR Wireless News wrote, putting Middle East and Africa demand alongside APAC excluding China and Latin America as the strongest near-term support for telecom equipment spending.
Omdia's estimate covers radio access network hardware and software in the first half of 2026, excluding services.
Growth across those regions was enough to lift the worldwide total by a single-digit percentage, while China remained the main drag on the market.
MEA Joins APAC And Latin America In The Growth Stack
Rémy Pascal, Omdia's practice leader for mobile infrastructure and RAN, identified APAC excluding China, MEA and Latin America as the main first-half regional contributors.
The MEA contribution included Gulf and neighbouring markets, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE named alongside Algeria, South Africa and Turkey.
The regional list also included Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Poland and the UK in Europe; Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru in Latin America; and Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand in Asia and Oceania.
For the full year, Omdia kept its forecast almost unchanged, with single-digit growth outside China largely offset by weaker Chinese performance.
5G Upgrades And Vendor Swaps Drive Demand
The demand drivers are spread across deployment stages rather than one upgrade cycle.
Late-adopter markets are still adding 5G, earlier markets are densifying networks or adding second and third 5G bands, and some operators are using modernization projects, vendor swaps and fixed-wireless access to extend spending.
Pascal framed vendor swaps as increasingly commercial and technical decisions rather than simple replacements of high-risk vendors.
That distinction matters for procurement teams because it ties RAN spending to network performance, modernization timing and supplier economics rather than only to security policy.
Five Vendors Still Control Most RAN Revenue
The global market remains concentrated.
Huawei ranked first in RAN revenue in the first half of 2026, followed by Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Samsung, and the five largest vendors accounted for about 95% of the global market.
Excluding China changes the order.
Ericsson led the ex-China RAN market, followed by Huawei, Nokia, Samsung and ZTE.
Regional leadership also split: By region, Ericsson held the top position across North America and Europe.
Huawei ranked first across Asia and Oceania, MEA, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Omdia does not expect the competitive balance inside individual regions to shift significantly over the next 12 to 18 months.
A larger emerging-market share in the global mix has recently benefited Huawei, and that regional weighting is likely to keep shaping the headline vendor rankings.
