5G mobile core market surges in Q2 2025

The 5G mobile core network (MCN) market has seen robust growth over the past twelve months, driven by increasing 5G Standalone (5G SA) subscribers and more 5G SA launches by mobile network operators (MNOs), with a study from Dell’Oro Group finding that while the overall MCN market experienced growth of 19% year-on-year (YoY), the 5G MCN segment saw an increase of 31%.

The Q2 2025 Mobile core network and multi-access edge computing report found that 71 MNOs had launched 5G Standalone in the quarter, with five new launches in the calendar year of 2025. Other MNOs have 5G SA networks on the drawing board that will be coming to market over the next several years.

The analyst noted that 40 countries/territories, with at least one MNO, can provide service to over 55% of the world’s population. Yet it added that, at the same time, only 14% of the world’s mobile subscribers had 5G SA services at the end of 2024, according to the Ericsson mobility report of June 2025.

“The conclusion one can draw from this is a low penetration rate of 5G SA subscribers from the 71 MNOs offering 5G SA services,” said Dave Bolan, research director at Dell’Oro Group. “As an industry, we have been bemoaning the slow uptake of 5G SA networks by MNOs. After all, we are in the sixth year of the 5G SA era, and with over 700 MNOs in the world, it is surprising that more 5G SA networks have not launched.”

However, given the expansion in business that it has witnessed to date Bolan said the analyst was doubling its growth rate for 2025 to 10% YoY. Stated growth drivers include RedCap-enabled IoT devices, new 5G smartwatches, expanding MEC deployments (55,000+ nodes in China), and dynamic network slicing. 

“As 5G SA networks continue to mature, we see more 5G SA elements coming to market, such as new radio [NR], reduced capability [RedCap] and network slicing. NR RedCap reduces the cost and complexity of 5G SA IoT devices, which will add to the uptick of devices connecting to 5G mobile core network, such as smartwatches and AR glasses,” added Bolan.

“Dynamic network slicing provides on-demand performance as needed by users, such as at a given venue or wireless broadcasters. Static network slicing is being used for fixed wireless access and mission-critical services that require full-time performance enhancements.”

The research also found that that the multi-access edge computing (MEC) market, a sub-segment of the 5G Packet Core, was up 32% on an annual basis for Q2 2025, and is projected to be up 44% yearly at the end of 2025.

At the same time, Dell’Oro said that it had seen MNOs realising the potential of their 5G SA cloud-native network, such as beginning to upgrade their voice cores to cloud-native IMS cores, fuelling the growth of the Voice Core market. The study found that the Voice Core segment grew by 18% compared with Q2 2024, contributing to strong growth in the second quarter. The analyst noted that if the upgrade was for Voice over NR (VoNR), it would add additional fuel to the 5G mobile core growth.

Leading the overall worldwide supplier rankings for the quarter were Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia and ZTE. Excluding China, the list was the same.