Test & Assurance for the Communications Industry

As 5G reaches its halftime mark, the game is far from over. The question is no longer if 5G can deliver, but how operators can unlock its full potential. From driving revenue through private networks, fixed wireless access (FWA), and API-enabled services to preparing for 6G’s transformative capabilities, this report uncovers the strategies shaping the future of connectivity. The 2025 Spirent 5G Report is your playbook to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving telecom landscape. Gain insider insights into the key players and innovations driving 5G monetization today and discover what’s next as the industry transitions to 6G. Get actionable strategies that will help you stay competitive and unlock new revenue opportunities.

The Lab-to-Live white paper, produced in partnership with Appledore Research, explores the critical shift required for modern networks to adopt a seamless testing and deployment approach. As cloud-native networks become central to enabling scalable, resilient, and agile infrastructure, traditional testing methods can no longer keep up. Lab-to-Live is a holistic strategy that integrates lab testing, network deployment, and operational monitoring into a unified lifecycle, fostering continuous improvement and stronger collaboration across development and operations. __Key takeaways__ from this research emphasize the importance of agile testing environments and proactive monitoring for cloud-native network resilience. With networks increasingly defined by software-driven applications, ensuring reliability involves rapid fault recovery and a shift from hardware-based resilience to software-based fault tolerance. This approach leverages continuous testing and visibility across all network components to proactively address failures, optimize resource usage, and support multi-vendor environments.

__What O-RAN Deployments will look like and how to make sure they perform__ Open RAN networks are viewed by some as an all or nothing initiative: if they aren't fully multi-vendor and disaggregated in the early days of rollout, then the initiative has failed. The reality is more complex. There are many options for deploying Open RAN, which means providers have a variety of paths they can take to address their specific needs. Deployments are happening in Greenfields with companies like Rakuten and DISH networks, and in Brownfields with companies like Docomo, which are investing in sizable initiatives. There’s been a wave of O-RAN-ready investments, too, with O-RAN-compatible, single vendor type systems. There are many more deployments coming, but there is still a gap between the pioneers and the large scale full multi-vendor nationwide O-RAN deployments. A good area of progress over the last few years has been Tier 1 vendor commitments to include O-RAN in their product roadmaps, which is a big win for operators, brings commercial confidence to the movement, and expands the market for new entrants, as there's more of a footprint of the network for them to deploy into.

Spirent’s FWA Competitive Benchmarking and Optimization solution offers a comprehensive look into the complexities that communication service providers (CSPs) face when deploying and validating 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) networks. As 5G adoption grows, CSPs are under increasing pressure to ensure that their FWA services not only meet performance expectations but also differentiate from competitors. This solution brief highlights the importance of real-world testing and independent performance analysis to address these demands and highlights several key questions that CSPs must answer to ensure success: - Does the service meet the minimum and maximum performance values as advertised? - How does the customer experience compare to competitors' offerings? - What areas of the network require optimization to remain competitive? - How can CSPs obtain unbiased, third-party validation of their network performance for marketing and operational purposes?

5G is a limitless market opportunity—if you can reduce the risks for end users, your supply chain, and your business. As one recent analyst report reminds us, “Trust is the foundational principle for technology adoption.” Yet trust is an elusive commodity in developing secure 5G use cases. The complexity of 5G security is so overwhelming that it actually creates a new form of risk: inertia. If your business cannot solve the security challenges of 5G, it risks falling behind and incurring the opportunity costs of inaction. At the same time, there is urgent pressure to deploy new services quickly, compounding the risks.

Cloud-native networks offer tremendous benefits – greater agility, faster release time, shorter time-to-market, lower costs, and the potential for telcos to avoid vendor lock-in. As network providers race to take advantage of clouds, how can they ensure that their services operate as promised and their customers enjoy the superior experience they expect? Hybrid clouds require enhanced collaboration with vendors and heightened vigilance against cyberattacks. In this paper, we look at the trends that are driving these challenges, particularly the move to hybrid clouds, and examine how test and assurance needs to evolve to support the agile new services running on cloud-native networks.