Deloitte's 2026 Telecommunications Outlook is out and it reads like a eulogy for the traditional carrier model. The core message: telcos that don't transform into digital platforms will be reduced to dumb pipes within five years.
Orange Business is already calling it "platformization." KPN is embedding AI into every customer touchpoint. The carriers that survive won't be selling minutes and megabytes. They'll be selling orchestrated digital experiences, whatever that ends up meaning in practice.
For channel partners, this forces a strategic question you can't keep putting off. Do you help carriers transform, or do you bet against them and sell direct alternatives? The answer depends on your customer base. Enterprise customers still need carrier-grade reliability. SMBs increasingly don't care who provides the pipe as long as the application works.
Five years is closer than it sounds.