According to Dell'oro Group, although conditions improved in Q2, 2024 overall was a challenging year for the telecom suppliers

Worldwide telecom equipment revenues across the six telecom programs tracked at Dell’Oro — Broadband Access, Microwave & Optical Transport, Mobile Core Network (MCN), Radio Access Network (RAN), and SP Router & Switch — declined 11% YoY in 2024.

Dell'Oro says this was the steepest annual decline in 22 years, when the market plummeted by more than 20% in 2002.

The numbers are even worse when taken over the past two years, with total equipment revenue falling by 14% for the two year period.

Dell'Oro says the "remarkable output deceleration" was broad-based across the telecom segments, and attributes the decline to multiple factors, including excess inventory, challenging macro environment, and difficult 5G comparisons.

"In 4Q24, stabilisation was driven by growth in North America and EMEA, which nearly offset constrained demand in Asia Pacific (including China)," says Dell'Oro.

Optical Transport, SP Routers, and RAN were the worst hit segments, collectively shrinking by 14% in 2024, while Microwave Transport and MCN experienced a more moderate combined decline in the low single digits.

Broadband Access remained the least impacted segment, according to Dell'Oro, with fairly stable revenues in 2024.

Asia Pacific was the most negatively impacted region, which Dell'Oro says reflected challenging conditions in China and other APAC countries.

Huawei was once again way out in front in the supplier market share rankings (31%), with Nokia (14%), Ericsson (13%), and ZTE (11%) still the main players.

Among the rest, Cisco (4%) had a particularly poor year, losing two percentage points of market share, while Ciena (3%) lost a point, with Samsung (2%) and Juniper (2%) holding steady.

Dell'Oro says market conditions are expected to stabilise in 2025, but will still be challenging with global telecom equipment revenues across the six programs to stay flat.