Open-RAN Investments Expected to Surge in the Next Five Years

A new study by Juniper Research has found that annual operator investment into Open Radio Access Networks will reach $11 billion in 2029, rising from $2 billion in 2024. This culmination of nearly $40 billion of global investment into AI network automation by 2029 will be driven by the need to cater to increasing cellular connections and data.

The report forecasts that cellular data usage will more than double over the next four years, owing to the expansion of new 5G broadband services, and the use of 5G for the Internet of Things. To enable telecommunications networks to efficiently process this increased data, the report identified AI-based traffic steering as a crucial service enabled by O-RAN. Traffic steering enables operators to maximize the efficiency of networks through the automated routing of cellular traffic to maximize network resources.

The report urges operators to leverage AI-based traffic steering, to intelligently steer traffic based on application. This will enable operators to prioritize applications dependent on low latency, ensuring that load balancing will occur with minimal impact on connectivity. “Operators must leverage AI-based traffic steering to improve connectivity services, such as enhanced mobile broadband, with network traffic generated by these connections being given priority steering to the base station offering the lowest latency to maximize the value proposition for users,” remarked research author Alex Webb.