Airspan Networks said it has deployed over 80 private networks globally during last year
Airspan Networks, a provider of software and hardware for 5G networks, and a specialist in end-to-end Open RAN solutions, reported revenue of $50.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, up 29% sequentially from third quarter 2021.
The company said that Q4 2021 revenue was down 38% year-over-year compared to exceptional performance in fourth quarter 2020, following COVID-19 lockdowns.
Airspan also reported a net loss of $19.6 million in Q4, compared to a net loss of $27 million in third quarter 2021, and net income of $8.3 million for fourth quarter 2020.
For full 2021, the firm reported annual revenue of $177.3 million, up 3% year-over-year compared to 2020, while product and software license revenue was up 13% year-over-year.
Airspan recorded a net loss of $70.5 million in 2021, compared to a net loss of $25.6 million for the full year 2020.
“We are seeing an explosion of interest in enterprise 5G private network solutions,” said Airspan Chairman and CEO Eric Stonestrom. “In conjunction, we recently announced several key partnerships and working relationships with some of tech’s most admired companies, while at Mobile World Congress. These partnerships include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, Dell, HPE and Qualcomm, as we ramp up our private networks capabilities and portfolio.”
The firm also highlighted that it has deployed over 80 private networks globally during last year.
The company anticipates first quarter 2022 revenue of approximately $38 million with gross margin of approximately 32%. Both figures were impacted by significant supply chain costs and challenges from COVID-19 restrictions in Asia, Airspan said.
“Demand for our products is strong, though supply chain challenges are still leading to increasingly long lead times. We continue to work hard in a number of ways to mitigate these challenges, finding alternative components, instituting multiple technological design changes and working closely with our partners. In this environment supply chain pressures center primarily around component availability, higher spot purchase prices for hardware components and increased shipping costs. While we have begun to pass some of these expenses on to customers through price increases, we expect the increased cost impact of components and freight to continue. We anticipate such supply chain challenges to extend through 2022,” Airspan said in its earnings release.
Airspan’s SVP of Technology & Marketing Abel Mayal recently said that part of the company’s private networks play involves addressing the growing interest in Open RAN standards.
He told RCR Wireless News that Open RAN offers the necessary level of deployment flexibility to drive significant value for enterprises. “You can move the software to your private network, you can host on premise, you can put it in the cloud,” he said. “This is a booming market… This is one of the main markets we are going to target as well.”
Looking ahead, Airspan will prioritize establishing additional partnerships in the Open RAN space — adding to those it already has with Amazon, HPE, Dell and Cisco — and focusing on technology scalability. Lastly, he said another feature that will be important for the industry is the interoperability between 5G and Wi-Fi.
