Open RAN is entering a new phase, with Open Fronthaul gaining momentum while Cloud RAN and multi-vendor RAN adoption follow increasingly distinct paths, according to a newly published report from Dell’Oro Group.

The August 2026 Open RAN Report finds that differences in technology readiness, deployment economics, and operator priorities are shaping the evolution of the RAN market. While Open Fronthaul is gaining traction as an industry interface, broader Open RAN adoption does not necessarily translate into greater supplier diversification.

"Open RAN is increasingly becoming a story about interface standardization rather than supplier diversification," said Stefan Pongratz, Vice President of RAN Market Research at Dell'Oro Group.

Pongratz continues, "Open Fronthaul is well positioned to become the preferred interface among the major non-Chinese RAN suppliers, even though most deployments will continue to use radios and basebands from the same vendor."

The distinction is significant for operators and equipment suppliers. Standardized interfaces can provide greater flexibility in network architecture without requiring operators to deploy components from multiple vendors. As a result, Open Fronthaul may continue to expand even as the overall RAN supplier landscape remains relatively concentrated.

Cloud RAN Adoption Increasingly Tied to Economics

The report also points to a more measured outlook for Cloud RAN. While virtualization remains an important element of the industry's long-term RAN roadmap, the report suggests that deployment decisions will increasingly depend on the economics of merchant compute and accelerators compared with purpose-built RAN platforms.

“Cloud RAN adoption will increasingly depend on the economics of merchant compute and accelerators relative to purpose-built RAN platforms,” Pongratz said.

This represents a shift from the expectation that virtualization would become a default architectural choice as operators moved toward 6G. Instead, operators are likely to evaluate Cloud RAN deployments based on factors such as compute costs, silicon performance, network architecture, and overall deployment economics.

Multi-Vendor RAN Outlook Remains Subdued

Despite continued progress toward Open Fronthaul, Dell’Oro expects the broader multi-vendor RAN market to remain relatively subdued.

Most deployments are still expected to use radios and basebands from the same supplier. Consequently, greater adoption of standardized interfaces may have less impact on RAN supplier concentration than some earlier Open RAN expectations suggested.

The report maintains a largely unchanged long-term outlook for Open RAN. Open Fronthaul is expected to become a preferred interface across next-generation RAN platforms, although near-term adoption has progressed more gradually than previously anticipated.

The latest edition of the report also expands market coverage, adding quarterly Open RAN and Virtualized RAN vendor market-share tracking alongside updated long-term forecasts.

For the RAN industry, the emerging picture is therefore less about a wholesale replacement of traditional supplier relationships and more about the gradual adoption of open, standardized interfaces. The pace and scale of that transition will continue to be influenced by technology maturity, operator economics, and the evolving performance and cost profile of commercial compute platforms.

Source: Dell'Oro Group

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