Signaling System Number Seven (SS7) Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2021-2031

The Global Signaling System Number Seven (SS7) Market is projected to expand from USD 1.81 Billion in 2025 to USD 3.71 Billion by 2031, registering a CAGR of 12.71%. SS7 functions as a collection of telephony signaling protocols essential for establishing calls, routing Short Message Service (SMS) texts, and coordinating roaming between Public Switched Telephone Networks and cellular networks. Market stability is largely anchored by the indispensability of legacy infrastructure for voice roaming and the pivotal role SS7 plays in enabling high-volume Application-to-Person (A2P) SMS for two-factor authentication. Furthermore, the market is driven by the demand for effective signaling firewalls to safeguard subscriber privacy and the need for protocol conversion solutions that guarantee interoperability between legacy 2G/3G systems and modern 4G/5G frameworks.

Conversely, the global market encounters a major hurdle arising from the rapid decommissioning of older network generations, which directly diminishes the potential customer base for SS7-reliant equipment. This phase-out of legacy technologies is measurably reducing the protocol's reach; the GSMA reported that in 2024, the combined market share of 2G and 3G networks was anticipated to represent 18% of global mobile connections by mid-year. This consistent reduction in legacy connections forces telecommunications operators to reallocate capital expenditures toward newer signaling standards, such as Diameter and HTTP/2, thereby limiting the scope for SS7 market growth.

Market Drivers

A primary catalyst for the market is the rising demand for SS7 firewalls and network security measures, a need driven by the protocol's intrinsic susceptibility to interception and fraud. As malicious actors leverage these architectural weaknesses for location tracking and message interception, operators face pressure to strengthen their signaling defenses to secure subscriber data and maintain network reliability. This priority is evident in the strategic roadmaps of telecommunications providers, who are increasingly allocating capital toward advanced signaling firewalls capable of filtering malicious Global Title traffic. Highlighting this urgency, the ITW Global Leaders' Forum stated in its October 2025 'GLF Fraud Report 2025' that 69% of carriers now rank fraudulent traffic as a top strategic priority, marking the highest level ever noted by the organization.

Concurrently, the market is supported by the continued dependence on 2G and 3G infrastructure in emerging economies, where economic and geographical challenges hinder the shift to next-generation networks. While developed countries are expediting the retirement of legacy systems, other regions retain these networks to uphold essential voice roaming and extensive IoT ecosystems that rely on SS7 connectivity. According to the Global mobile Suppliers Association's '2G-3G Switch-Off July 2025' report, Europe represented 46% of all global switch-off activities, suggesting a considerably slower decommissioning rate in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Additionally, Ericsson noted in November 2025 that 5G subscriptions comprised only one-third of all mobile subscriptions worldwide, ensuring that the bulk of the global user base remains engaged with infrastructure necessitating robust SS7 signaling.

Market Challenges

The rapid decommissioning of legacy network generations presents a critical structural obstacle to the expansion of the Global Signaling System Number Seven (SS7) Market. Since SS7 serves as the fundamental signaling protocol for 2G and 3G architectures, the systematic retirement of these networks effectively removes the primary operational context for SS7-based infrastructure. As telecommunications service providers focus on spectrum efficiency and transition toward 4G and 5G standards, capital expenditure is being aggressively redirected from SS7 maintenance to newer signaling protocols like Diameter and HTTP/2. This shift results in a permanent reduction of the addressable market, rendering legacy signaling equipment obsolete in a growing number of regions.

This diminishing footprint is confirmed by recent industry data highlighting a sharp rise in global network closures. According to the 'Global mobile Suppliers Association', operators across 77 countries had identified 254 completed, planned, or in-progress 2G and 3G switch-offs in 2024. This significant volume of network terminations verifies that the installed base for SS7 is disappearing at a rate that directly limits market expansion possibilities, compelling vendors to deal with a rapidly shrinking client base for their core legacy products.

Market Trends

The implementation of hybrid interworking functions is becoming a vital trend as operators manage the extended coexistence of legacy signaling protocols alongside emerging 5G architectures. Due to the slower-than-expected migration to 5G Standalone (SA) cores, telecommunications providers are depending heavily on 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) deployments, which leverage the 4G LTE core and its accompanying SS7 and Diameter signaling for voice fallback and mobility management. This operational context demands sophisticated Interworking Functions (IWF) capable of seamlessly translating between the HTTP/2 protocols of 5G and legacy SS7 standards to ensure service continuity in hybrid environments. As reported by the Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) in its '5G Standalone August 2025' report, only 173 operators across 70 countries were investing in public 5G Standalone networks, highlighting the industry's broad reliance on hybrid architectures requiring ongoing SS7 interoperability.

At the same time, the market is undergoing a decisive shift from proprietary hardware-based Signaling Transfer Points (STPs) to cloud-native and virtualized signaling infrastructure. Operators are increasingly separating signaling software from the underlying hardware to achieve the scalability and agility necessary for managing fluctuating network traffic and to incorporate signaling controllers into wider Telco Cloud strategies. This transition enables the dynamic creation of signaling instances within containerized environments, thereby lowering the physical footprint and operational expenses tied to maintaining legacy switching equipment. The strength of this virtualization trend is reflected in the financial results of major technology vendors; for instance, TelecomTV reported in June 2025 within the 'Mavenir grabs a financial lifeline, doubles down on mobile core' article that Mavenir's bookings for its cloud-native network portfolio hit USD 650 million for the year ending January 2025, a 45% rise driven by the sector's move toward software-based signaling and core solutions.

Key Players Profiled in the Signaling System Number Seven (SS7) Market

• Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
• Ericsson AB
• Nokia Corporation
• Cisco Systems, Inc.
• ZTE Corporation
• Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
• Juniper Networks, Inc.
• Dialogic Corporation
• Ribbon Communications
• Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Report Scope

In this report, the Global Signaling System Number Seven (SS7) Market has been segmented into the following categories:

Signaling System Number Seven (SS7) Market, by Deployment Type:

• On-premises
• Cloud
• Hosted

Signaling System Number Seven (SS7) Market, by Protocol Support:

• SS7 ISUP
• SS7 TCAP
• SS7 SCCP
• SS7 MTP

Signaling System Number Seven (SS7) Market, by End-User Industry:

• Telecommunications
• Banking & Finance
• Transportation
• Healthcare
• Government

Signaling System Number Seven (SS7) Market, by Application:

• Network Interconnection
• Signaling & Routing
• Voice over IP (VoIP)
• Fraud Management
• Roaming Services

Signaling System Number Seven (SS7) Market, by Region:

• North America
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• South America
• Middle East & Africa

Competitive Landscape

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the Global Signaling System Number Seven (SS7) Market.

Available Customization

The analyst offers customization according to your specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:

• Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five).

This product will be delivered within 1-3 business days.