What issues are on the table for telcos in 2026? What sort of conversations can you expect at key industry gatherings? Here’s our best guess. Read on…
As we do every January, with the new year underway let’s look at what we think will be some of the key themes in the telecoms industry in 2026. With Mobile World Congress, the first “big” event of the year. now looming, our predictions should give you an idea of what you can expect to be discussed at the tapas bars and FIRA coffee shops in Barcelona, as well as across the rest of the year. We’ve come up with five key topics that we think will be front of mind for telco industry executives.
Network investment, consolidation, and M&A activity
Carriers are already making significant investments on fiber and spectrum buildout to boost their broadband and 5G offerings (e.g., AT&T’s large fiber and spectrum deals) and improve their bottom lines, and we expect this to continue to be the case and even pick up pace. At the same time, we expect to see consolidation in the telco market (for example, Liberty Global’s proposed €1.5bn deal in Ireland) as operators pursue strategies driven by scale and synergy. In a similar vein (efficiency) we also expect infrastructure sharing collaborations, driven by 5G rollout, to proliferate. Cost effective models for network deployment should be a popular topic.
Network evolution
5G is here (more or less, anyway) and monetisation and maturity will be (or remain) a hot topic, with carriers shifting from pure connectivity to enterprise services like private mobile networks, network slicing, and APIs as they seek to generate new revenues. Telco being telco, as 5G advanced deployments begin to pick up, expect talk presaging 6G to begin in earnest (research, spectrum discussions, early trials, etc.). Launch may be a few years away, but 6G stakeholders will prepare early for commercial launches.
AI transformation of networks and operations
AI is far from pervasive…yet. The early use cases are relatively simply (like AI agents for customer service) but as these first deployments proliferate, the real goal of AI, automation of networks themselves – predicted to be the most transformative force – will be much discussed. From AI-augmented network management and operations to customer-facing digital services, your ears will be burning with these conversations! AI could shift telcos from connectivity providers to intelligent service platforms if everything goes to plan.
New business models and services
The value-added services prediction is pretty much an ever-present in our annual list. This year think cybersecurity, cloud, and IoT solutions as being the focal points as telcos seek to offset slowing traditional revenue growth. Also, telco/edge-cloud integration, satellite connectivity and multi-platform services (including direct-to-device satellite broadband) that create new enterprise revenue streams (sound familiar?) are likely to be under the microscope.
Economic forces and pricing dynamics
Predictions of tariff (anyone sick of that word yet?) increases in some regions likely mean that telcos will pursue healthier pricing power after years of service commoditisation. Operators will have to continue to navigate cost pressures, service bundling strategies, and competition with over-the-top (OTT) platforms so they’ll need to identify new answers to old questions.
In short, there are lot of key issues on the table that telcos will likely be addressing in 2026. Come prepared, with this list of discussion points as a start!
2026 is here – predicting the key themes for telcos
What issues are on the table for telcos in 2026? What sort of conversations can you expect at key industry gatherings? Here’s our best guess. Read on…
As we do every January, with the new year underway let’s look at what we think will be some of the key themes in the telecoms industry in 2026. With Mobile World Congress, the first “big” event of the year. now looming, our predictions should give you an idea of what you can expect to be discussed at the tapas bars and FIRA coffee shops in Barcelona, as well as across the rest of the year. We’ve come up with five key topics that we think will be front of mind for telco industry executives.
Network investment, consolidation, and M&A activity
Carriers are already making significant investments on fiber and spectrum buildout to boost their broadband and 5G offerings (e.g., AT&T’s large fiber and spectrum deals) and improve their bottom lines, and we expect this to continue to be the case and even pick up pace. At the same time, we expect to see consolidation in the telco market (for example, Liberty Global’s proposed €1.5bn deal in Ireland) as operators pursue strategies driven by scale and synergy. In a similar vein (efficiency) we also expect infrastructure sharing collaborations, driven by 5G rollout, to proliferate. Cost effective models for network deployment should be a popular topic.
Network evolution
5G is here (more or less, anyway) and monetisation and maturity will be (or remain) a hot topic, with carriers shifting from pure connectivity to enterprise services like private mobile networks, network slicing, and APIs as they seek to generate new revenues. Telco being telco, as 5G advanced deployments begin to pick up, expect talk presaging 6G to begin in earnest (research, spectrum discussions, early trials, etc.). Launch may be a few years away, but 6G stakeholders will prepare early for commercial launches.
AI transformation of networks and operations
AI is far from pervasive…yet. The early use cases are relatively simply (like AI agents for customer service) but as these first deployments proliferate, the real goal of AI, automation of networks themselves – predicted to be the most transformative force – will be much discussed. From AI-augmented network management and operations to customer-facing digital services, your ears will be burning with these conversations! AI could shift telcos from connectivity providers to intelligent service platforms if everything goes to plan.
New business models and services
The value-added services prediction is pretty much an ever-present in our annual list. This year think cybersecurity, cloud, and IoT solutions as being the focal points as telcos seek to offset slowing traditional revenue growth. Also, telco/edge-cloud integration, satellite connectivity and multi-platform services (including direct-to-device satellite broadband) that create new enterprise revenue streams (sound familiar?) are likely to be under the microscope.
Economic forces and pricing dynamics
Predictions of tariff (anyone sick of that word yet?) increases in some regions likely mean that telcos will pursue healthier pricing power after years of service commoditisation. Operators will have to continue to navigate cost pressures, service bundling strategies, and competition with over-the-top (OTT) platforms so they’ll need to identify new answers to old questions.
In short, there are lot of key issues on the table that telcos will likely be addressing in 2026. Come prepared, with this list of discussion points as a start!
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