For years, telecom operators have worried about being squeezed out of the value chain. Recently, I’ve had the privilege of speaking with senior market observers who have all argued that the risks from disintermediation have not gone away and that the most important choice for operators in 2026 is clarity of role, not reach.
The first wave of this shift emerged at the consumer end of the market. Over-the-top (OTT) players built services on top of operators’ networks and captured the customer relationship. Messaging, media, and collaboration applications all run over connectivity funded and maintained by operators, while a large share of margin and brand value sits with the OTT providers. This dynamic has become the accepted norm in many segments.
A second wave is now emerging from below. Hyperscalers are moving closer to the network layer. Edge computing, cloud, and 5G/6G private connectivity are changing how infrastructure is built, operated, and consumed. In many enterprise and wholesale discussions, hyperscalers increasingly shape how customers think about performance, security, and reliability – areas in which operators once clearly led.
Buying behaviour is evolving at the same time. Business customers are looking for solutions rather than standalone circuits. Many expect operators to play a bigger role than simply providing connectivity, yet are increasingly prepared to turn to cloud and technology providers if operators do not step into that role. Disintermediation, in this context, does not arrive as a sudden break, but as a gradual shift of trust, influence, and spend.
Operators squeezed into the middle
Seen through this lens, operators are being compressed between powerful forces. At the top of the stack, platforms and systems integrators often own the customer story and outcome. At the bottom, hyperscalers set much of the pace on infrastructure innovation and investment. Operators remain in the middle, still carrying capital intensity, regulatory obligations, and operational risk, yet finding it harder to explain where they uniquely fit in the new order.
Market commentators frequently point out that network operators remain critical to national and global infrastructure, and to the orchestration of many services. However, connectivity alone no longer defines value for most enterprise buyers. Customers typically assume the network will function; what they increasingly pay for is what surrounds it – security, integration, control, assurance, and transparency across complex environments.
This is reflected in spending patterns. Traditional connectivity revenues in many markets are relatively flat, while investment in cloud-enabled and security-led services continues to rise. When operators position themselves narrowly as network providers rather than as broader enablers or orchestrators, they risk stepping away from areas of higher growth and strategic influence. Core connectivity growth is modest, around 3% but adjacent secrors like cybersecurity, next-generation connectivity, and cloud-enabled services are growing at roughly twice that rate. This is where budgets are expanding and where buying decisions are becoming more strategic.
The role of purpose and positioning
From a market perspective, the key question appears less about whether operators should move beyond connectivity and more about what role they choose to play as the ecosystem evolves.
Some operators are doubling down as trusted infrastructure providers, emphasising reliability, compliance, resilience, and sovereignty. Others are working to take greater ownership of outcomes by integrating, securing, and orchestrating across multi-cloud and hybrid environments. Many are experimenting with a mix of infrastructure depth and service-layer breadth. But evidence from the UK mobile market, including work by Cambridge Judge Business School, shows that complex bundles and opaque propositions reduce trust rather than increase it. When buyers cannot easily understand who is accountable, confidence shifts away from the provider.
Whatever route is chosen, commentators argue that clarity of purpose and communication is essential. Without a clear narrative, operators risk drifting: adding services without a defined outcome, partnering without setting direction, and pursuing “transformation” without a clear destination. In that vacuum, hyperscalers, platforms, and alternative networks are often the ones that end up defining the category and the expectations within it.
Communication as a strategic lever
This is why many industry observers place growing emphasis on communication as a strategic leadership task, not a downstream marketing activity. If operators cannot clearly explain why they exist beyond connectivity and what makes them valuable in a converging cloud–network landscape, they risk losing control of their story with customers, investors, policymakers, and their own people.
For boards and executive teams, this points toward a renewed focus on purpose: being able to state, in simple terms, what the organisation stands for, where it intends to lead, and why that matters in a market where roles are being rewritten. If that explanation does not come from the operators themselves, hyperscalers, OTT players, and a growing field of alt-nets are ready to define it on their behalf.
In practical terms, disintermediation often shows up as slower growth, thinner margins, and reduced influence over standards and commercial terms. If operators delay too long in defining their role, they may remain essential to network delivery but find that they are doing so on terms largely set by others which is a prospect increasingly described as the most costly form of disintermediation.