- Analysts talked about what the telecom landscape will look like in 2026
- Complementary technologies, the spectrum war and focus on ‘first mile’ coverage are expected to ramp
- How to subsidize networks beyond deployment will be another pressing issue
This year's Broadband Nation Expo featured plenty of chatter on the future of connectivity, from the role networks will play for AI to addressing the access gaps that remain.
As the show drew to a close, analysts delved into the biggest trends and issues they expect will shape the telecom landscape in 2026. Here's what they said.
Complementary coverage – at what cost?
The use of complementary technologies for connectivity has been a key trend that shows no signs of stopping.
“We are seeing a lot more complementarity nowadays,” said Brattle Group Principal Paroma Sanyal. This includes large and small operators doubling down on fixed wireless access (FWA) and the rise of direct-to-device (D2D) with satellite.
On the latter front, she thinks 2026 could see mobile satellite service expand with voice and other features – provided there’s enough capacity. “That’s not going to be your primary connectivity, but that’s where the complementarity comes in.”
But the ever-present question is where to find the revenue to support these technologies.
“A lot of the technology is exciting, it’s out there. What’s interesting is, what’s going to fund all this and how is this going to be sustainable long term?” Sanyal added.
'First mile' focus
Berge Ayvazian, senior analyst and consultant at Wireless 20/20, similarly thinks convergence will carry the industry forward in 2026. For the end-user, “it’s not about technology, it’s about delivering the best broadband service in an economical manner.”
To that end, he said the focus isn’t the last mile but the “first mile,” the piece of the puzzle from the street to the home. Typically, “the common denominator is Wi-Fi.”
Ayvazian argued operators “don’t really sell broadband,” they provide a connectivity that’s wireless but connects to a wireline network.
“In that world, it’s not about either/or," he said, arguing that telecom operators and vendors still have work to do in bolstering convergence in their products.
“We’ve heard a lot about ways to bring hybrid networks together…but it’s very rare that you see operators drive the vendor ecosystem, which has a technology bias inherent in their current portfolio, to tell them, ‘well what we really want is a wireless network that has fiber or a fiber network that connects to the customer through wireless,” said Ayvazian.
Spectrum war will heat up
Access to spectrum – namely the 6 GHz band – will be key for operators looking to deploy Wi-Fi 7, Ayvazian added. He thinks 6 GHz is poised to not only give operators “a huge amount” of bandwidth but also offer them a new way to tap into unlicensed spectrum and extend wireless connectivity.
But the battle for more spectrum is expected to rage on. President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act notably did not include explicit auction protections for the 6 GHz band, which currently provides a full 1,200 megahertz of spectrum for unlicensed purposes like Wi-Fi.
In Sanyal’s view, keeping the 6 GHz band for Wi-Fi capacity is ideal as the years ahead will likely see congestion ramp “with the amount of data and offloading we do.”
She also hopes 2026 will bring forth more discourse around spectrum sharing, perhaps even for the 3.1 GHz band that’s primarily been used by the Department of Defense. (DoD).
‘They are still sitting on a very large front of the spectrum,” Sanyal said. “I think definitely getting the military to move on some of that spectrum is going to be really, really important – and not on a 10-year basis,” noting that’s how long it took to establish the shared Citizen Broadband Radio Services (CBRS) band.
More than shovels on the ground
With the NTIA approving the first round of state Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) plans, the industry anticipates 2026 will finally see the program come to fruition.
We can expect to see “not just shovels in the ground but networks being built,” Ayvazian said, and operators will have to figure out how to get those networks up and running. While the grant money can help get BEAD builds off the ground, a lot more capital is needed for sustaining the network, he noted.
Further complicating the issue, NTIA recently issued a new BEAD requirement where providers must agree not to take additional federal subsidies for their project areas.
So, the industry needs “to be ready to operate those networks beyond the construction cost,” said Ayvazian. “They’re not necessarily going to be profitable day one, so we’re going to need capital beyond the grants to deliver on the promise of BEAD.”