Looking Ahead to 2026 in Telecom and Internet Infrastructure

As years go, 2025 has been quite a trip. And I mean that entirely in the sense of an LSD trip. But in telecom and internet infrastructure all the craziness has kind of washed over a granite base of organic buildouts backed by real money. Everyone is too busy for the nuttiness that has enveloped politics, trade, immigration, and the like. It feels like we’d rather it all just go away while we do what we gotta do, and this year it mostly has. Will that continue in 2026? Well, yes and no. Prognosticating is hard these days, but I’ll give it a go.

Artificial Intelligence — The AI train spent 2025 gaining momentum, and to call it a juggernaut now is to understate it. But even still we remain in the stage where the future benefits are theoretical even while the investments needed to get there are very much a now thing. But in 2026 there’s going to be some political pushback. Affordability concerns will take aim at consumer energy bills, and it doesn’t matter whether AI’s energy appetite is truly at fault or not. Pressures in the job market seem likely to grow, and it doesn’t matter whether AI is actually behind it. What matters is whether such things ‘feel’ true, and in 2026 the AI hero that has kept the stock market rolling may find itself re-cast as the bad guy.

That being said, 2026 will also be the year we start seeing tangible effects of AI when it comes to operations within the sector.  All those applications that promised to change the landscape in security, customer management, and the like will start to bear fruit and make the current workforce more efficient and capable.  Ok, not all those applications, but some anyway.

Energy — The demand for more power and cooling in the data center world is accelerating, and the curve doesn’t look anything like that of supply coming online from energy utilities. That is something that will NOT be resolved in 2025. But what I think *will* happen is an increased buzz around next generation energy production projects. Speculation will rise, and one area that will benefit is fusion — the solution that is always 10 years away. But in a world where AI and quantum computing are suddenly real things, the technology behind nuclear fusion is also tantalizingly close. Not close enough to happen, perhaps, but close enough for the money guys to bet on it maybe happening. There are already startups out there throwing money at it, it’s not just national labs anymore.

Quantum Computing — The buzz around quantum computing surged this year without a doubt. But with increased scrutiny has come some doubt about the timeline of getthing anything useful out of it. It is increasingly hard to find applications that quantum computing might have that are anywhere near commercially viable. It will remain a buzzword, but it feels like it will remain on the margins in 2026 while the physicists and engineers continue to scale things. Quantum will get here and it will change things, but the hype will be more transparent for a while yet than other possibilities.

Fiber — While the source of the energy to feed AI may be in doubt, we know how to handle its appetite for bandwidth. The organic buildout of new longhaul, metro, and subsea fiber will continue unabated in 2026. It won’t get as much attention as it deserves, but the days the industry dreamed of back in the dot-com bubble era are now actually here. There’s so much to do organically that there’s less interest in growth by M&A.

FTTH –– This remains where most of the M&A will be in the fiber world, at least in the US. Consolidation among the dozens or even hundreds of builders and operators that have been speed-running FTTH buildouts all over the country is inevitable. The land rush isn’t over yet, but it’s not beyond the horizon anymore. The cherry picking of good markets to build into has entered a new phase.

That’s my take. Yes, it’s fairly general this year, but I’m finding specifics hard to discern through the mists at the moment. What’s your prediction?

If you haven't already, please take our Reader Survey! Just 3 questions to help us better understand who is reading Telecom Ramblings so we can serve you better!

Categories: Artificial Intelligence · Datacenter · Energy · Fiber Networks · FTTH · Quantum