Amid the political controversy about using equipment from Chinese vendors in 5G networks, Huawei still appears to be putting its main rivals in the shade — at least in terms of the strength of its 5G radio access network (RAN) portfolio and its tally of 5G contracts.

According to a new report from GlobalData, which assessed the respective 5G RAN technologies from Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia, Samsung Electronics, and ZTE, Huawei’s 5G RAN portfolio holds the strongest position overall, “with leading claims in all four criteria categories including superior baseband unit capacity and radio unit portfolio breadth.”

Of the other four vendors, which all tied for second place overall, Nokia stood out for strength in its radio unit portfolio while Ericsson won praised for products that ease radio installation, such as its Street Macro and Vault Radio offerings. Samsung rated strongest on baseband capacity and the radio unit portfolio and ZTE on baseband capacity and installation ease.

Ed Gubbins, principal analyst at GlobalData and author of the report, pointed out that Huawei’s leadership in terms of the capabilities of its 5G RAN portfolio isn’t that surprising, “since the vendor’s 4G RAN portfolio has been exhibiting leadership for similar reasons in our assessments for some time now.”

With regard to the political climate, Gubbins noted that Huawei’s RAN portfolio leadership “potentially adds to the tension between operators that might favor Huawei gear over competitors and government entities that are concerned about Huawei for security or trade reasons.”

Gubbins added that while the 5G RAN market is currently extremely competitive, the vendor landscape is changing rapidly and could shift further as carriers move from the 5G New Radio Non-Standalone (5G NR NSA) specification to the 5G NR Standalone (5G NR SA) standard.

As he explained, the first wave of 5G RAN based on 5G NR NSA “relies on existing 4G LTE infrastructure for some functions. So in the race to win 5G deals with operators, each vendor has a strong advantage with operators that already use their 4G gear. Standalone 5G, which requires a 5G core, will give vendors a better chance to penetrate new operator accounts and grow their global market share. We expect the standalone 5G RAN market to start ramping up in 2020.”

Gubbins said it’s difficult to predict which vendor might surge ahead in the 5G NR SA market, but noted that decisions “will be specific to the operator involved and its strategy, and they will also, in some cases, be influenced by the political dynamics we’ve all seen unfolding.”

He added: “Vendors that don’t have leading market share in the global RAN space – Samsung and ZTE come to mind – need to be working hard to take advantage of this opportunity by demonstrating authority and credibility in standalone 5G and being early to commercialize differentiated standalone solutions.”

Huawei also continues to boast a rising number of 5G contracts, announcing that it has now won 50 5G commercial contracts and shipped more than 150,000 base stations.

Rivals often criticize the vendor for being less open about the names of its contract partners, although carriers may be less willing to go public with the news that they are using equipment from China.

Nevertheless, Ryan Ding, executive director of the board and president of the Carrier BG of Huawei, said during MWC Shanghai 2019 that “since the first half of this year, a good number of countries including South Korea, UK, Switzerland, and Italy have commercially launched 5G networks, two-thirds of which were constructed by Huawei.”

Ding added that two months after 5G was commercially launched in South Korea, the country’s 5G user base has grown to one million. “5G’s [average revenue per user,] is 75% higher than in 4G, but the per-GB price is 90% less, meaning that both users and operators benefit,” he said.

Huawei’s rivals are also using the China edition of MWC (formerly known as Mobile World Congress) to highlight their 5G credentials. ZTE, for example, said it has now secured 25 commercial 5G contracts and committed to 5G partnerships with 60 carriers around the world.

Ericsson continues to say on its web site that it has 22 announced 5G contracts, of which nine are now live networks, and 47 announced 5G partnerships. During MWC Shanghai 2019, Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm highlighted the Sweden-based vendor’s work with industries on 5G applications. He noted, for example, that it is cooperating with China Mobile’s branch in Jiangsu and Robo Technik to deploy a “hybrid network” in a Robo Technik factory “that combines 4G and 5G, private and commercial networks, as well as a central and edge cloud to meet requirements of safety production and management.”

Nokia now has 43 commercial 5G contracts, of which at least 22 are with named customers. At the Shanghai event, it announced that China Mobile agreed to adopt its new AirScale mMIMO Adaptive Antenna (MAA), “created specifically for the massive bandwidth and coverage requirements of the Chinese market as it transitions to 5G.”