Worldwide vCPE/uCPE Forecast, 2023-2026

This IDC study covers the worldwide market for NFV infrastructure at the enterprise network edge, aka vCPE software and uCPE hardware, for the 2023-2026 period. IDC forecasts the virtual CPE software market to grow from $1.2 billion in 2021 to $4.0 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 26.7%. The virtual CPE (uCPE) hardware market is expected to grow from a base of $524.4 million in 2021 to $992.1 million in 2026 at a CAGR of 13.6%."Enterprises and communications service providers (SPs) are embracing network virtualization technologies to deliver on the promise of SD-Branch and network as a service (NaaS) to bring new deployment and consumption models and services to market," said Ajeet Das, research director, Carrier Network Infrastructure at IDC. "As the industry slowly but surely addresses impediments such as the cost of hardware and the maturity of VNF software and its integration, the combined software and hardware market is evolving toward $5 billion by 2026."