2020/12/23
news briefing 
           According to Gartner estimates, the output value of the global open telecom architecture industry should continue to grow at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 30% from 2021 to 2025, which output value will reach an excess of US$35 billion US after five years.

impact analysis 
       The design of open architecture has broken loose from the industry ecosystem whereby developers produced their hardware architecture and specifications; this helped telecom operators to select equipment with greater flexibility based on their own needs when deploying networks rather than being confined to using the whole set of equipment from the same supplier as in the past. Though not a completely new concept, since telecom companies can choose how to deploy 5G systems with a novel mindset from the start, they don’t have to be monopolized by a few major international brands as in previous times. In view of the different context now, such a new setting has not only turned popular among smaller emerging telecoms which considered the cost advantage, but more and more traditional telecom operators such as At & T, Verizon, Vodafone and others who dominate the core network resources within the country have also resorted to making use of it. 
        
    For suppliers of PCB or other components, open 5G network architecture brought mixed reactions. On the one hand, the highly flexible architecture has increased telecom companies’ willingness to deploy on a large scale (reducing construction costs), thereby speeding up 5G networks’ popularity. On the other hand, it also provided more opportunities for OEMs or ODMs to enter the market regarding industry ecology rule changes. As viewed, it should be most beneficial to component manufacturers both in terms of sales volume or customer selection. Nonetheless, if manufacturers can meet the standards, they can produce equipment and grasp the opportunity of being adopted. Although openings are available for many second-tier or white-label equipment manufacturers in the short run, they are more liable to suffer from price competition than high substitution in the long run. Even if Taiwanese PCB manufacturers may enjoy the harvest of the 5G network construction at this very stage, they must persistently pay attention to competition changes among downstream customers.