Network managed services market could take short term dip

Dell'Oro Network has released the key takeaways from its latest Equipment Service Market advanced research report.

Dell'Oro Group Vice President Jimmy Yu says that product attached services should offset expected declines in managed services this year, contributing to the market's growth in 2020.

Network equipment services market returning to growth

Following five consecutive years of market contraction, the network equipment services market began to reverse direction, growing slightly in 2019 due to positive developments with network rollout services and consulting services offsetting reduced demand for managed services.

Yu says that improved market sentiment in 2019 will extend through the forecast period, resulting in the market registering $46 billion in 2024.

Near term challenges for managed services

Managed services is expected to weigh on the market in the near term as vendors continue to exit contracts that are unprofitable and non-strategic.

Yu says that Dell'Oro researchers are optimistic about the role of managed services in the future as networks continue to increase in complexity and vendors deliver a greater amount of automation to proactively maintain networks, reducing the number of costly alarms.

Network equipment services is evolving

While "plan, build, operate, and maintain/transfer" remains a critical aspect of the services market, it is not expected to be the dominating driver for services in the future.

The reason for this change in drivers is that the next network generation is not just about installing the newest hardware, expanding network coverage, or reducing the number of network layers.

While these will still be part of the next network solution, we believe that network complexity will dramatically increase in the future as service providers strive to incorporate SDN/NFV, IoT, 5G real-time services, along with exploring new architectures such as Open RAN.

Yun says that, as a result, service offerings in the future will increase in sophistication often incorporating a higher amount of software and consulting.

Vendor landscape is stabilising

Following five years of dynamic share shifts, the top three vendors – Huawei, Ericsson, and Nokia – have held their market share for the past three years.

Together these three vendors accounted for about 75% of the NE Services market in 2019.

About the report

Dell'Oro Group's Network Equipment Services report covers the service offerings by select network equipment manufacturers (vendors) that supply service providers.

The network equipment we are referring to includes such equipment as broadband access, optical transport, routers, and mobile radio infrastructure.

Network Equipment Services are reported in three segments: rollout services, managed services, and consulting services.