Research

Defining the future telco — and what it means for operators and their partners


Mobile network APIs: Building successful commercial models

To successfully commercialise APIs, the telecom industry must reach new customers – application developers – and sell significantly different services than traditional voice and data. We outline how telcos can meet developers where they are and identify strategies for operators to maximise their share of value creation from API capabilities.

Why edge-native platforms are the future of computing

As real-time, AI-driven workloads scale, cloud-native systems are falling short at the edge. This report explores why edge-native platforms that are lightweight, modular and purpose-built for decentralised environments are emerging as the architectural foundation for the next generation of intelligent, autonomous systems.

Private network sites forecast 2024–2030

This research note presents STL Partners’ forecast for the number of active private network sites over a 7-year period. It details site numbers across seven regions and acts as a complement to our Private network market forecast 2024–2030.

Cloud-native evolution: Unlocking CSP transformation

As CSPs transition into the Coordination Age, they face critical challenges in adopting cloud-native architectures and transforming operational models to meet the demands of enhanced connectivity and resource optimisation. This report provides practical strategies to navigate these challenges, with a focus on simplifying RAN transformation, enabling agility and unlocking new opportunities for innovation and growth.

Private network market forecast (2025 update)

This report presents quantitative analysis of the global demand for private networks over a 7-year period. We explore the revenue trends across the value chain and provide insights into different deployment models and technologies across 14 verticals.

Total addressable market for AI solutions in the mobile telco network and OSS: USD18bn by 2030

Mobile operators have used intelligence in their networks and OSS for a while. What has changed recently is how new techniques (e.g., generative AI and/or agentic AI) can be applied, often on top of traditional methods, to accelerate the use of AI in the network domain and move telcos along their journey to higher levels of network autonomy. This forecast estimates the value for vendors of selling AI-enabled solutions to mobile operators to support their network and OSS processes.

Telco cloud deployment tracker Q1 2025: The various flavours of open RAN

Most large-scale deployments of virtualised RAN (vRAN) at Tier 1 telcos are currently based on single-vendor architecture. But operators are deploying vRAN in innovative ways that aim to preserve many open RAN benefits. This report looks at the current status of vRAN and open RAN deployments as well as the increasing awareness of the importance of deploying cloud-native RAN across multiple containers-as-a-service (CaaS) layers.

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