Dell’Oro Group warned the multi-access edge computing (MEC) market was not developing as expected, lowering its revenue expectation for 2023 in part due to weakness in China during Q1.

The company shed 20 per cent from its revenue prediction, but did not state what the original figure was.

It cited factors including a lack of applications with a clear RoI, attention on standalone private networks, pending Wi-Fi 7 deployments and competition from large cloud companies as hindering MEC progress.

“We believe enterprises are evaluating all of these choices before moving forward with more aggressive MEC deployments,” research director Dave Bolan said.

The research company defines MEC as extensions to mobile network operators’ networks.

It highlighted a decline in mobile core network revenue in China during Q1 as deployments of standalone 5G matured and forecast growth in the market will contract by the year end.

Global core network markets fared better, with Dell’Oro Group stating growth rates were the highest since Q4 2019.

Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia and ZTE topped its tables when including China.

It estimated 43 operators had launched commercial SA 5G enhanced mobile broadband networks by end-March.