5G

Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia lead in 5G contributions: report

It may be no surprise to 5G standards observers to hear that Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, Qualcomm and China Mobile are in the lead when it comes to 3GPP activities.

However, Strategy Analytics breaks it down further, showing that Huawei leads in terms of overall contributions to the end-to-end 5G standards, while Ericsson leads in Technical Specification Groups (TSGs) and Working Groups (WGs) chairmanship and Nokia in approved/agreed ratio of 5G contribution papers.

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According to Strategy Analytics' latest assessment of 3GPP Release 15 and Release 16, the 13 studied companies contributed more than 78% of 5G related papers, and led 77% of the 5G related Work Items and Study Items. The research firm notes that there are more than 600 member companies in 3GPP, yet the process is led by a select few.  

The leading infrastructure vendors – Huawei , Ericsson and Nokia – made more significant contributions to 5G standards than other studied companies, according to Sue Rudd, director, Networks and Service Platforms at Strategy Analytics.

“3GPP plays the central role in the ecosystem of global 5G standardization. By analyzing the contributions of industry players to 3GPP 5G standards, we can get an idea of different companies’ positions in 5G innovation as well as their influence in the global mobile industry," said Guang Yang, director at Strategy Analytics, in a statement. "So we looked at 3GPP organization and work procedures to assess each company’s influence from multiple aspects."

Phil Kendall, executive director at Strategy Analytics, said it’s important to remember that the true nature of the standardization process is actually one of industry collaboration rather than competition. “3GPP standardization continues to be a dynamic process. It is expected that emerging players and new market requirements will increasingly impact priorities for 3GPP Release17 standards,” he stated.

The report assessed contributions based on the following criteria:

  • Volume of 5G related papers, including submitted papers, approved/agreed papers and the ratio of approved/agreed papers to total submissions in all TSGs and WGs
  • Chairmanship positions, such as chairman and vice chair for all TSGs and WGs
  • Rapporteurs of 5G related Work Items/Study Items in all TSGs and WGs