Agentic AI is beginning to penetrate telco operations, but only in domains such as billing and field maintenance, which do not require real-time data or network operations. What will it take to enable secure and reliable use of agentic AI in more critical network operations?
As AI and national sovereignty increasingly intersect, telecoms operators face both opportunity and risk. This report sets out a practical framework to help telcos determine whether, where and how to play in sovereign AI.
In the first report in this series we identified the most promising opportunities for telcos to serve enterprise AI needs. This follow-up research focuses on the practical steps telcos must take to execute, differentiate and deliver impact for enterprises adopting AI.
Regional AI ambition was at the heart of the Middle East’s inaugural MWC event, backed up by a new LLM and many large investments. But the region is still early in its journey, and must focus on laying fundamental groundwork if it is to see the successful adoption of AI.
This report examines the key opportunities for telecom operators to monetise enterprise AI and secure long-term relevance within the emerging AI ecosystem.
As the strategic importance of sovereign AI grows, so do opportunities for data centre operators. This report shares the findings from a recent STL Partners webinar on the topic.
The data centre industry stands at an inflection point: poised for rapid AI-driven growth, but only if it can navigate key challenges.
AI will create large potential opportunities for telcos in connectivity and use case enablement. But telcos must manage expectations and prioritise their investments carefully.
New technologies have made innovation in the network imperative for telcos’ survival. But the focus and scope of innovation varies by the type of company telcos aim to become.
To avoid becoming pure utilities, telcos must evolve their core businesses into more efficient and flexible infracos. But if they also want to accelerate growth and capture the full value of their network investments, they should strive towards building services businesses and becoming telecom techcos. We explore different pathways leading operators are taking to get there.
Analysis of the edge computing market highlights video analytics as a short-term opportunity with a large edge-addressable market. We examine the video analytics market today, the role of edge in stimulating growth, and the actions telcos can take to achieve success in this space.
Edge infrastructure deployment is happening – but how big will it really be, and where will it happen? We quantify the five-year outlook for edge deployments across four key domains.
Indoor wireless coverage is essential to many IoT and 5G use-cases, but it’s also horribly difficult to achieve. With new entrants and changing user demands the power dynamics are shifting, and operators need to make strategic decisions now to avoid losing their stake in this market.
Building a telco based on ‘free’ open source software is theoretically highly attractive to telcos, particularly those looking to increase their control over innovation and differentiation, and/or where cost reduction is critical. This report looks at how to address the challenges, identifies practical options and choices, and how, when and why to go about open source transformation in the real world.
As LTE adoption passes 50% in North America and 9% worldwide, we review the operators who did best and worst and draw conclusions for the mass adoption phase of 4G. The analysis provides a valuable template for all players in the 4G race, and has important implications for plans for 5G.
The last few years have seen attempts by many leading telecoms operators to refresh their business model and generate new sources of growth and value. Now many digital initiatives are being scaled back. Telefonica and Telenor, two companies in the vanguard of the ‘drive to digital’ have both disbanded their digital organisations. In the first of two reports, STL Partners explores why efforts to yoke platform and product innovation businesses to a traditional infrastructure business have proved so difficult. The financial and operational constraints associated with traditional telecoms – particularly the need for long investment cycles in ‘one-function’ infrastructure – have made achieving the switch to ‘agile digital innovation’ all but impossible. But all that may be about to change and the future could be a little brighter.
If telcos in certain markets act swiftly, there is a major new and addressable opportunity in cloud created by profound recent changes in data sovereignty and security requirements. We outline the market opportunities, specific customer needs, and market sizing in our latest research.