The vEPC market was USD 8,429.9 million in 2023, which will rise to USD 27,776.3 million by 2030, powering at an 18.8% compound annual growth rate, by 2030. This is because of the increasing acceptance of network function virtualization (NFV), rising focus on IoT and edge computing, disposition of 4G LTE, growing mobile data traffic, and implementation of SA or 5G NSA network services with improved speeds.
The solutions category, on the basis of component, was the larger contributor to the industry. This is because of MNOs' rising recognition of the various advantages provided by vEPC solutions like the possibility of virtualizing main components, including mobility management entity, home subscriber server, serving gateway, and packet data network gateway.
All of them improve network efficiency, service quality, scalability, customer & business satisfaction, cost-effectiveness, and flexibility. The services category, on the other hand, is likely to advance at the fastest compound annual growth rate, of 20%, in the years to come. This can be because of the rising acceptance of vEPC solutions by various telephone companies to improve services, meet the demand of mobile users, and adjust to the swiftly shifting and rising network needs.
The 5G category, on the basis of network type, will advance at a faster compound annual growth rate, of 20%, in the years to come. This is because of the mounting need for fast data services and the increasing importance of the acceptance of developed technologies like IoT and cloud computing, across sectors.
The IoT and M2M category, based on application, was the largest contributor to the vEPC market. This is because of the existence of more than 13 billion connected devices, or IoT subscribers, globally in the year 2022.
This can be ascribed to the substantial need for IoT-powered devices and gadgets, along with NB-IoT and Cat-M; and the surging count of IoT cellular subscribers, with the increasing acceptance of this technology in different sectors and by customers.
In 2023, the cloud category, based on deployment mode, was the larger contributor to the industry, with a 60% share. Moreover, this category is likely to advance at a faster rate, of 22%, in the coming years. This is because of the speedy disposition of cloud packet core across different applications, communication services, critical enterprises, and massive IoT, to achieve the Industry 4.0 goal.
APAC will advance at the fastest rate, of 25%, in the years to come. This is because of the incidence of prominent MNOs in this region, the increasing need for tablets, smartphones, and various other IoT-powered devices, and the fast acceptance of advanced 5G technology. With the surge in the acceptance of NFV, the vEPC industry will continue to advance in the coming years.
SOURCE: P&S Intelligence