Viewpoint, Comarch Communications
The European telecommunications market is anticipated to develop slowly, at simply 2% to three% by 2029. Due to this sluggish development and the challenges of a fancy world financial system, operators are rethinking how they work. The trade is now trying past conventional shopper mobile providers, that are solely rising at 3% to 4%, and is shifting towards broader communication ecosystems, together with mission-critical networks, satellite tv for pc infrastructure, and big IoT deployments.
These challenges and rising developments had been extensively mentioned on the latest Comarch Consumer Group gathering, highlighting the important paths operators should take to remain aggressive. The occasion hosted over 700 companions from 53 international locations throughout 8 streams, together with 201 connectivity specialists.
Financial pressures and productiveness calls for
The worldwide financial system now calls for excessive ranges of funding, particularly in know-how. Main international locations are spending closely. China, for instance, is allocating 25% of its GDP to infrastructure and know-how, creating much more worth than Europe’s tech investments. On this aggressive surroundings, conventional effectivity strategies usually are not sufficient. Communication Service Suppliers (CSPs) want to spice up productiveness by shortly adopting new applied sciences.
“World markets are pivoting in direction of AI adoption, the place conventional effectivity strategies merely gained’t be sufficient to maintain tempo with the worldwide financial system. As we emphasised alongside our companions on the latest Comarch Consumer Group, CSPs should basically rethink their operational fashions. We are able to not rely solely on shopper mobile providers, we should pivot aggressively towards broader, extra advanced ecosystems and providers that embody mission-critical networks, huge IoT deployments, and autonomous multi-orbit satellite tv for pc infrastructure,” commented Marcin Kaleta, CEO at Comarch Communications.
Tackling complexity with Agentic AI
One of many important challenges for CSPs is dealing with the rising complexity of their networks. Proper now, as much as 40% of community outages are brought on by human error, and 88% of digital transformations don’t meet their targets. To handle this, the trade is shifting from primary automation, which relies on people following guidelines, to Agentic AI, the place programs tackle extra duty inside set insurance policies.
Consumer case research offered on the Comarch Consumer Group this 12 months highlighted that altering programs to help intent-based actions permits for as a lot as 30% to 40% minimize in Community Operations Middle prices and a ten% to twenty% sooner Imply Time to Restore (MTTR). Nevertheless, solely 6% of CSPs have the information streaming talents wanted to completely use superior AI fashions, which means that technical readiness remains to be an enormous hurdle.
Huge IoT deployments and API Financial system
Integrating Huge IoT into 5G networks brings new bodily and technical challenges. The previous means of regularly checking gadgets drains batteries and may overload the community. In the course of the inaugural IoT Connectivity Discussion board at CUG 2026, specialists detailed that switching to an event-driven setup and utilizing the 5G RedCap normal makes it simpler to handle related gadgets. Standardizing CAMARA interfaces and Community Publicity Features (NEF) additionally helps operators transfer towards an “API financial system.” This modification allows them to monetize community High quality of Service (QoS) by focused microservices, making CSPs extra than simply easy information carriers.
Overcoming know-how debt with modular programs
To benefit from these new income alternatives, operators want to handle their present know-how debt. Outdated, monolithic programs usually decelerate IT groups and pose vital dangers when adjustments are made. As an alternative of changing the whole lot without delay, the trade is shifting to composable Enterprise Help Programs (BSS) utilizing the TMF Open Digital Structure. This modular method permits for focused upgrades, resembling including cloud-native billing engines that may scale assets as wanted.
Jacek Prokop, BSS Product Advertising and marketing Supervisor at Comarch Communications, highlighted this subject, referring to monolithic legacy programs as a “silent killer”. To mitigate the dangers of migrating away from these monoliths, he launched the idea of operational digital twins inside a modular structure current in Comarch Communications’ Composable BSS suite: “We’re supplying you with a safe, remoted sandbox the place you may clone and take a look at your actual manufacturing information, like orders and merchandise, with out ever touching the dwell system.”
Sovereign networks within the face of worldwide instability
Geopolitical instability has made connectivity greater than only a primary service – it’s now seen as a key a part of nationwide sovereignty. There’s a clear hole in house infrastructure: the US has many extra satellites and launches them far more usually than Europe. To scale back this dependency, packages just like the European Union’s IRIS² are investing €10 billion in constructing a safe, multi-orbit satellite tv for pc community. Working this sort of infrastructure requires floor software program that may handle advanced information and mission management autonomously, with out counting on different international locations.
Getting ready core structure for the subsequent decade
Because the trade faces financial pressures and the necessity to enhance productiveness shortly, you will need to concentrate on core structure moderately than particular person use circumstances. Constructing modular programs and supporting operational independence will probably be key for operators who need to revenue from new ecosystems.
Trying forward, CSPs must ask themselves an necessary query: Is our information structure sturdy sufficient to help autonomous brokers and sovereign networks so we will keep aggressive within the subsequent decade?