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Enabling Telecom Omni-Service Monetization

Chris Silberberg, Peter Chahal — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Perspective examines how telecom operators can monetize an expanding portfolio of consumer, enterprise, NaaS, and API-based services, and how BSS vendors are helping them do so. It sets out 6 structural challenges — business model diversity, catalog fragmentation, ecosystem and API commercialization, data fragmentation, regulatory divergence, and commercial agility — identifies the billing, charging, CPQ, catalog, marketplace, and settlement capabilities most relevant to each, and profiles 15 vendors serving this market.

"The rationale for telco BSS investment is shifting from a focus solely on TCO, or monetizing a specific product such as 5G FWA, toward investing in systems with the flexibility to sell anything. This is to unlock revenue growth and commercial agility by monetizing a wider range of services. Technical capability is just one part of the solution; telcos must also reconsider their processes and organizational setup if they are to overcome common challenges," said Chris Silberberg, research manager, Global Telecom Operations and Monetization at IDC.

Telecom Infrastructure Modernization in Sub-Saharan Africa

Tolga Yalcin — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Presentation examines the state of telecom network infrastructure modernization across Sub-Saharan Africa, covering 5G rollout, fiber and FTTx backhaul expansion, RAN and core virtualization, tower and infrastructure sharing, and the energy and currency constraints shaping network economics. The presentation profiles infrastructure investment patterns in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Côte d'Ivoire, and identifies three models through which operators are modernizing at scale: shared and coinvested build-out, regulatory-enabled competitive scale up, and network virtualization.

Equinix Inference Exchange and Metro Edge: Colocation Becomes AI Production's Middle Tier

Olga Yashkova — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note examines Equinix Fabric One and Equinix Inference Exchange, announced at the company's inaugural Horizon conference, and their implications for enterprise AI infrastructure strategy. Built with NVIDIA and Together AI and slated for 1Q27 availability, Inference Exchange positions metro colocation as a production-grade middle tier for AI inference, sitting between centralized cloud training and device-level far edge, and raises the competitive bar for neutral edge and colocation providers, hyperscaler edge programs, and network operators alike.

"Equinix is making a clear bet: The next battleground in enterprise AI isn't just which model you choose but where inference actually runs. By turning metro colocation into a pre-integrated production tier, Inference Exchange forces every neutral edge and cloud provider to answer the same question: proximity or scale, but not both," said Olga Yashkova, research manager, Worldwide Telecommunications Services at IDC.

IDC Survey Spotlight: How Much Traffic Is AI Use Adding to European Enterprises’ Networks, How Are They Responding, and What Will Drive Further Growth?

James Eibisch — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight shows how AI use is increasing traffic on European enterprise networks, where the greatest increases are occurring, how enterprises are responding, and where they believe further AI-related traffic growth will come from. The report is based on the European results from IDC’s Future Enterprise Connectivity Infrastructure and Services Survey, conducted in August 2026.

LEAP 2026: AI Infrastructure Reshapes Saudi Telecom Strategy and Regulations

Ahmad Latif Ali, Tolga Yalcin — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note examines the AI, cloud, and infrastructure announcements from LEAP 2026, held August 31–September 3 in Riyadh, which drew more than 200,000 visitors and produced nearly $15 billion in disclosed investments and agreements. It covers new hyperscaler cloud regions from Microsoft and AWS, HUMAIN’s expanding sovereign AI compute pipeline, and a fresh wave of Saudi datacenter investment, alongside the different strategic paths Saudi telecom operators, including stc, Mobily, Zain KSA, Salam, and Tawal, are taking into AI infrastructure. It also covers CST’s move to extend infrastructure-based competition to a second utility, the National Water Company, following its earlier licensing of SEC-owned Dawiyat.

“LEAP 2026 made clear that Saudi Arabia’s AI buildout is being layered onto its telecom operators’ infrastructure, and that a widening set of players, including utilities, are now being brought into that infrastructure layer alongside them,” says Tolga Yalcin, research director, IDC.

Midmarket SMBs' Unified Communications and Collaboration SP Buying Trend and Outlook, 2026

Daniela Rao, Denise Lund — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Presentation provides an overview of the U.S. and EMEA midmarket (100–499 employees) SMBs' buying trends and outlook toward unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) solution SPs by highlighting buying criteria and preferences. It also includes recommendations to address midmarket organizations with innovative propositions.

Service Provider Routing and Switching: Navigating the AI-Driven Supercycle

Ajeet Das — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note details how service provider routing and switching returned to double-digit growth in 2026, driven by AI infrastructure buildouts rather than traditional telecom capex. IDC tracker data shows the Ethernet switch market reaching $15.4 billion and the router market $3.8 billion in 1Q26, with NVIDIA becoming the top vendor in datacenter Ethernet switching for the first time. The note covers the expansion of disaggregated white-box routing, AI-scale chassis refreshes from Cisco, Arista, and HPE/Juniper, and the hyperscaler's growing role as buyer, vendor, and interconnection-layer operator through multicloud networking products. IDC recommends that operators and vendors treat the unresolved Scale-Across DCI architecture question, competitive responses to NVIDIA, and component supply risk as near-term budget and roadmap priorities.

"The routing and switching market's return to growth is an AI infrastructure story, and the vendors and hyperscalers that resolve the Scale-Across architecture question first will set the terms for the rest of the market," says Ajeet Das, Research Director, IDC.

UAE Licenses Starlink to Aid Telecoms Resiliency

Ahmad Latif Ali, Simon Baker, Tolga Yalcin — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Market Note assesses how the impact of the Middle East War has affected the value of Starlink satellite broadband in providing communications resiliency when communications or power are knocked out. Only Saudi Arabia has yet to liberalize the full use of Starlink.

"The Middle East War has changed official attitudes to satellite broadband, and GCC countries are embracing Starlink use as a backup when other communications go offline," says Simon Baker, senior research director, Satellite and Non-Terrestrial Connectivity, IDC.

IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Telco Network Operations Managed Services 2026 Vendor Assessment

Bruno Teyton, Chris Barnard — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC study highlights a shift from cost-driven outsourcing to strategic partnerships, as communication SPs (CSPs) increasingly rely on managed SPs for operational transformation, automation, and AI integration. Vendors are evaluated on their ability to deliver autonomous, secure, and multi-domain network operations, with leaders distinguished by advanced AI capabilities, modular platforms, and strong co-innovation strategies. The managed services model is central to CSPs' pursuit of operational excellence and differentiated customer experience.

"The network operations managed services market for CSPs enters a new phase with growing technology complexity and CSP business transformation," says Bruno Teyton, associate vice president for IDC's network infrastructure and services group. "MSPs in this space need to help CSPs navigate this transformation, automate network operations, and deliver tangible outcomes with a partnering and co-innovation mindset."

IDC Survey Spotlight: How Will AI Workloads Reshape Enterprise Network Demands in the Next Two Years?

Brandon Butler — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

This IDC Survey Spotlight profiles a question from IDC's Enterprise Infrastructure Pulse Survey (EI Pulse Survey) on how significantly AI workloads are reshaping enterprise network demands. The survey data shows organizations reporting major or severe network impact from AI workloads more than tripling over a two-year period, reflecting a shift from AI as traffic the network simply absorbs to a workload the network must be architected around.

"AI has fundamentally changed what enterprises need from their network. It's no longer just about handling more traffic — it's about supporting continuous, unpredictable interactions between users, agents, models, and tools that legacy networks weren't originally designed for. The fact that major or severe AI-related network impact has more than tripled in just two years suggests network modernization is becoming a more urgent consideration for many organizations. Suppliers that can speak to AI workload readiness, simplified management, and the governance and observability capabilities enterprises are increasingly prioritizing are well positioned to influence modernization decisions going forward." — Brandon Butler, senior research manager, Network Infrastructure and Services, IDC