Frost Radar™ 2026: The Market Benchmark for 5G Growth and Innovation

In the latest Frost Radar™ 5G Network Infrastructure 2026 report, research and analyst firm Frost & Sullivan ranked Ericsson as the growth and innovation leader, combining scalable innovation with sustained execution in a highly competitive 5G market for the sixth year in a row.

Highlights from the report:

1. Proven leadership across the full 5G portfolio: Ericsson offers end-to-end 5G network infrastructure—spanning RAN, transport, and core/edge networks, including traditional RAN, open and virtual RAN, AI-enabled RAN, and private networks. 
2. Innovation at global scale: Ericsson’s ability to scale innovation across generations—2G through 5G—and across more than 175 countries is explicitly recognized in the report. With nearly 21% of revenue invested in R&D in 2025, Ericsson sustains innovation while ensuring solutions are deployable at real-world scale.
3. Leading the move to open, virtual, and AI-driven RAN: Ericsson began offering open and virtual RAN solutions in 2024 and believes this has already resulted in significant market growth, positioning Ericsson as a leader in this segment. Ericsson is also a founding member of the AI-RAN Alliance, and AI is used in its portfolio bringing AI-driven automation into live networks.
4. Strong growth execution with solid financials: Ericsson’s success in retaining customers, winning replacements from competitors, and improving profitability, even in a challenging infrastructure market. This balance of growth and profitability is a key reason Ericsson tops the Growth Index.
5. Energy efficiency that delivers real impact: Ericsson has achieved their RAN portfolio targets by reducing 40% the energy consumed in a typical radio site compared to 2021 portfolio. This supports not only CSP sustainability goals while lowering significantly total cost of ownership.