7 trends that will define telecommunications in 2025

8 minute read

Big changes are coming to the telecom industry in 2025.

Take one look at what happened to the industry in 2024 — it’s not hard to see why.

We saw the rapid buildout of 5G and 5G Advanced networks, industry-changing mergers and acquisitions, and significant improvements to AI. 

While these developments are important on their own, they play a part in something much bigger that’s happening in the industry.

So, let’s unpack the biggest industry trends we predict will dominate the headlines in 2025.

A quick recap of telecom in 2024:

Market Growth
The global telecom market grew to $2.32 trillion in 2024.
Future Growth
The industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.15% from 2024 to 2034.
Emerging Markets
Asia-Pacific emerged as the fastest-growing region in the industry.
Segment Growth
Business applications, cloud, & collaboration tools grew by 10%.
Market Competition
U.S. consumer access to broadband connectivity doubled in the year.
Artificial Intelligence
AI implementation focused on customer success and network optimization.
Global 5G Adoption
Global 5G connection passed 2 billion, growing 48% year-over-year.
Commercial 5G Networks
More than 341 commercial 5G networks were available globally at the end of 2024.
Microsoft Teams
More than 1 million global organizations use Microsoft Teams.
Market Growth

The global telecom market grew to $2.32 trillion in 2024.

Future Growth
The industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.15% from 2024 to 2034.
Emerging Markets
Asia-Pacific emerged as the fastest-growing region in the industry.
Segment Growth
Cloud, business applications, and collaboration tools grew by 10%.
Market Competition
U.S. consumer access to broadband connectivity doubled in the year.
Artificial Intelligence
AI implementation focused on customer success and network optimization.
Global 5G Adoption
Global 5G connection passed 2 billion, growing 48% year-over-year.
Commercial 5G Networks
More than 341 commercial 5G networks were available globally at the end of 2024.
Microsoft Teams
More than 1 million global organizations use Microsoft Teams.

#1 AI will transform customer service and engagement

Love or hate it, AI isn’t going anywhere.

The largest UCaaS and CCaaS providers have already integrated AI into their solutions. We’ve also seen many telecom companies start exploring how to use AI to improve business processes, from simple chatbots answering questions to automated call transcripts and meeting notes. 

AI women with phone copilot

2025 will go even further as AI takes on a bigger role in the customer experience.

Expect to see AI voice agents rolled out in contact centers and customer service teams to provide real-time and natural language responses to customers. This will allow companies to provide nearly instantaneous customer service in scenarios where humans aren’t available.

These agents will also be able to access company resources, provide useful answers, and help companies scale their customer service without increasing headcount.

AI will also drive personalization at scale, transforming customer engagement and marketing strategies. 

“2024 was a busy year helping our clients migrate and adopt Microsoft Teams as their all-in-one collaboration solution. In 2025, we will help our customers make strategic investments in AI through Co-Pilot in teams, AI-powered network optimization, and holistic network management solutions that enable anywhere connectivity, seamless collaboration, and meaningful engagement — all powered by Microsoft Teams,” said Rick Garcia, EVP Product & Marketing at Momentum Telecom.”

#2 Industry consolidation will accelerate

Consolidation isn’t new in the telecom industry.

But the cracks are finally starting to show, and with competition heating up, the largest industry players are turning to mergers and acquisitions to solidify their products and services.

In 2024, the biggest deals included:

  • Verizon’s proposed $20 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications, expanding Verizon’s fiber coverage to over 25 million passings.
  • Uniti Group and Windstream’s $13.4 billion merger, reuniting their wholesale fiber network and FTTH operations.
  • T-Mobile’s $4.4 billion acquisition of USCellular’s assets, expanding T-Mobile’s rural coverage.
  • Comcast’s acquisition of Nitel to improve its managed services for enterprises
  • T-Mobile and KKR’s joint $4.9 billion acquisition of 50% of Metronet, aiming to grow fiber coverage
  • HPE’s $14 billion acquisition of Juniper Networks to strengthen its networking business.
  • Nokia’s $2.3 billion acquisition of Infinera to bolster its networking infrastructure

This trend will only continue as companies use consolidation to overcome challenges like maintaining and funding infrastructure projects, addressing market fragmentation, improving operational efficiency as costs rise, and adapting to regulatory changes.

#3: Cloud consumption will ramp up

Cloud growth has been on a steady upward trajectory for over a decade.

By now, most companies have adopted cloud technology in some form — with 98% of global organizations using cloud services.

2025 will see this trend continue as slow adopters will be forced to upgrade legacy infrastructure as products reach their end of life.

The impending sunsetting of analog PSTN lines will further support this trend, forcing many companies to make the shift to the cloud.

For telecom companies, embracing containerization, microservices, and virtualization will introduce greater flexibility, scalability, and automation capabilities.

#4: Telecom companies will start offering managed cybersecurity

Cybersecurity has quickly become a top priority for companies in almost every industry.

This is largely due to increased AI-driven attacks, stricter compliance requirements, and the astronomical financial and business impact of data breaches.

The telecom industry has already embraced SASE and SD-WAN — these technologies are nothing new. Additionally, many companies have migrated to these solutions or plan to do so soon. That’s because they understand edge connectivity can drive operational efficiencies without compromising security. 

This shifting trend provides telecom companies with an exciting growth opportunity as larger industry players invest in managed security solutions to bundle with existing products.

Creating holistic security solutions will create new revenue streams with small and medium-sized businesses that lack the capacity, expertise, and resources to manage cybersecurity internally.

Vendors will start offering managed security solutions like active monitoring, proactive threat detection, and remediation — internally, by acquisition, or through partnerships with established MSPs — turning cybersecurity into a bundled service that eliminates a major pain point for most businesses.

#5: The rise of the self-service customer experience

The customer experience, as we know, will change in 2025.

The new focus will be on leveraging AI and automation to enable self-service for customers. This will allow businesses to automate the procurement process for core business services.

Rapid advancements in AI reasoning will make this possible as AI solutions become further integrated with a business’s processes, products, and services.

Rather than a lengthy sales cycle — customers will be able to engage an automated system or AI agent to procure the services they need. For example, do you want to add additional phone numbers or increase throughput for an internet connection? Make the request, and it’s done.

The idea is to make it as easy as possible for customers to purchase commoditized products while leaving the more complicated sales and scenarios to humans.

#6: High-performance internet will come to rural communities

Bringing internet access to rural and underserved communities has always been a significant challenge for the telecom industry.

For many years, the cost of building broadband infrastructure to serve these smaller communities outweighed the potential return on investment.

But innovations in wireless connectivity have changed the game. Both 5G and low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites — like those popularized by Starlink — have leveled the playing field.

Almost overnight, rural communities have gained access to reliable, high-performance connectivity. This will provide telecom companies with access to new revenue streams as they race to secure new customers in these communities.

#7: 5G will take center stage

A lot is riding on the success of 5G — or what may eventually become 6G.

And 2025 should be a big year for the wireless technology.

man on phone with 5g

The global 5G rollout is still going strong and should become the dominant communication standard for smartphones in 2025. Telecom companies can expect to see higher levels of adoption and monetization for their public 5G networks.

We also expect more investment and deployment of 5G Standalone (SA) networks. These networks will offer higher speeds, lower latency, and enable new VR/AR and IoT use cases.

Some telecom companies may even offer private 5G networks to provide customized functionality to support new use cases like smart cities, autonomous driving, and edge applications.

A new era of connectivity has arrived

2025 will be an exciting year in the telecom industry.

AI will transform customer experiences, delivering meaningful personalization at scale and rapid customer service. 

5G and LEO satellites will deliver high-performance connectivity to underserved communities. 

Industry consolidation will create new opportunities for innovation and growth.

The question is no longer what’s next for telecom — it’s how quickly the industry will rise to the challenge. 

One thing is certain: the possibilities are as limitless as the connections it will create. Stay ahead of the curve and elevate patient outcomes with Momentum Let us help you design, deploy, and support innovative managed services that tackle your company’s biggest challenges. Ready to transform your operations? Contact Momentum today!

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