This article was first published in Developing Telecoms.
Over the last two years, the move by CSPs (communications service providers) to increase their offers beyond connectivity and sell a wide range of digital services has become an increasingly urgent priority, as connectivity revenue growth has been almost flat. At the same time, AI has moved from small-scale proof of concepts aimed at improving customer care to a critical priority in multiple business functions, and will also play a fundamental role in moving the industry towards the vision of fully autonomous networks.
2026 will see a major push for CSPs to monetize beyond connectivity services. We’ve already seen tier 1operators like Jazz in Pakistan undergo successful transformations and move from being a telco to becoming a digital services company. In Q3 2025 Jazz’s revenues from digital services accounted for almost 30% of total revenues. This is just one example of the implementation of a digital operator strategy, and we are seeing many other operators looking to up their digital services game, providing a wide range of offers from education to healthcare to entertainment. But to succeed, it’s important that these services are relevant to the country they are offered in, and this means working with local and regional partners to produce and deliver meaningful and relevant digital services.
To market and sell these new digital services, many CSPs are increasingly turning to AI-driven solutions. CSPs have a wealth of data about their customers and are using this to provide intelligence that can help drive marketing and sales efficiency. These AI-driven solutions will use real-time data from BSS and monetization solutions to enable personalised, context-aware customer engagement.
The data from BSS and monetization systems that CSPs use to drive AI-driven sales and marketing campaigns can be extremely sensitive, and includes data on customers and usage patterns, financial and payment information. Many countries now enforce strict data sovereignty rules that require this data to remain within national borders. To ensure regulatory and legal compliance many CSPs are working with AI technology providers to provide in-country solutions. Some CSPs are also developing local Large Language Models with their technology partners to better support local and regional languages, dialects, mixed-language usage and culturally specific expressions common in customer interactions. To accommodate varying local strategies for AI and data sovereignty, BSS platforms must provide CSPs with the flexibility to use the AI technologies best suited to them.
One of the biggest changes underway is in monetization. CSPs are upgrading their billing and charging systems from ones that were built to collect, rate and monetize voice calls, messaging and MBs of data to ones that can monetize everything and anything – from remote health services to a live stream of a football match to an AI assisted on-line maths tutor service.
This change is not just for consumer digital services. Many CSPs are also expanding ‘beyond connectivity’ service offerings to sell technology services and solutions to their B2B customers. These include edge and cloud-based computing, AI and security solutions, and a wide range of ICT offers. Several CSPs have also developed ICT solutions for specific vertical markets such as manufacturing, logistics, healthcare and construction. By targeting growing industries that are undergoing digital transformation, rely heavily on connectivity, and need scalable infrastructure, security, and data capabilities, CSPs are transforming to become technology companies. CSPs have an advantage here in that they are not starting from scratch: they have core assets, such as infrastructure, customer base, data, and trust that they can build upon to increase revenues from selling ICT solutions to their B2B customers. As data sovereignty is becoming a global priority, CSPs are in a unique position to address the increasing needs and drive new revenues since they are established and trusted providers of critical infrastructure.
In 2026 we will see an increased focus on selling to B2B customers. As 5G SA roll out gains momentum, we will see more ICT solutions supplied that feature network slicing, allowing the CSP to include SLA backed connectivity with fixed throughput and latency rates. Including differentiated connectivity as part of a solution gives CSPs a significant advantage over other technology suppliers.
With connectivity ARPUs flatlining, price-based all you can eat models becoming the norm, and the demand for data set to quadruple by 2030, CSPs need to go beyond selling connectivity services to consumers and business customers if they are going to grow. With the introduction of AI-driven sales and marketing solutions, and the appetite for change, 2026 could well be the year when we see the transformation of CSPs into digital services companies become a mainstream reality.
Jukka Heiska
CMO, Qvantel