Telecoms enters 2026 with a big challenge: legacy

Despite substantial investments, telecom operators struggle with legacy IT and network infrastructure, impacting innovation, operational costs, and customer satisfaction. New strategies emphasising cloud-native, agile platforms and organisational change are emerging to reshape the industry’s future.

The telecommunications industry stands at a crossroads where broad 5G deployment and the promise of 6G coexist with stagnating connectivity revenues and mounting maintenance costs, forcing operators to confront the limits of legacy IT and network stacks. According to a recent report by RCR Wireless, 75% of telco CEOs say legacy IT systems hinder rapid innovation, a problem compounded by multilayered vendor integrations and slow internal processes that frustrate product teams and customers alike. ^[1]

Operators have poured billions into modernization, yet industry data shows many initiatives fall short; RCR Wireless cites a 70% failure rate for digital transformations, while Accenture’s Telco Reinvention Blueprint found 79% of Communication Service Providers recognise the need for modern IT systems to deliver flexibility and streamline operations. Together these findings underline how layered architectures and partial upgrades can blunt the value of modernization. ^[1][4]

The operational drag is visible in customer experience metrics. RCR Wireless notes the average telco Net Promoter Score (NPS) sits around -1, while digital-native brands commonly achieve scores near +60, illustrating the widening experience gap that drives churn and depresses lifetime value. Younger, digitally native customers, including Gen Z and millennials who now make up a large share of the workforce, increasingly benchmark telco experiences against Amazon, Spotify or Apple rather than traditional carriers. ^[1]

Beyond IT, ageing network infrastructure remains a material constraint. Research from TXO shows 81% of operators believe legacy networks limit their ability to roll out new services and compete with greenfield challengers, and many expect copper and older 2G/3G systems to remain in service for years, adding financial and operational pressure and complicating decommissioning plans. These network realities reinforce the case that transformation must extend beyond front-end systems. ^[3][5][6][7]

The business case for different approaches is stark. RCR Wireless highlights that cloud-native, composable and no-code platforms can cut time-to-market dramatically, new offers may launch in as little as 16 weeks, and reduce total cost of ownership by an estimated 40–50% versus multi-vendor patchworks. NTT DATA’s research further supports the thesis that outdated technology impedes innovation, with 80% of organisations reporting that inadequate tech hampers their ability to innovate and 94% of C-suite executives saying legacy infrastructure affects agility. ^[1][2]

Agile platforms also promise operational simplification. By automating partner onboarding, service provisioning and revenue-sharing, cloud-native stacks can lower overhead, shrink the need for large integration teams and enable parallel or modular migration strategies that reduce disruption. Accenture recommends building AI-native data architectures alongside modern IT to unlock continuous innovation and better monetise data-driven services. ^[1][4]

Strategically, operators that adopt an outside-in, customer-first model stand to capture new revenue beyond connectivity. The RCR Wireless analysis outlines a “techco” model framed around three pillars, Connect, Delight and Beyond, where frictionless onboarding, digital lifestyle services and open ecosystems combine to deliver personalised experiences and faster product cycles. That approach aligns with investor preferences for companies that pair network assets with digital agility, which command markedly higher revenue multiples than traditional telcos. ^[1]

Implementation still requires cultural and leadership change. RCR Wireless argues transformation must be led from the top, with silos broken down, cross-functional teams empowered and institutional incentives aligned to redirect resources from maintenance to innovation. Practical tactics already in use include launch of parallel digital brands on clean stacks to test propositions and phased migrations that iterate rather than attempt all-at-once rewrites. ^[1]

For incumbent operators the path is therefore twofold: tackle legacy network and IT debt pragmatically while accelerating adoption of cloud-native, composable platforms and AI-enabled data architectures. Industry studies from RCR Wireless, Accenture, TXO and NTT DATA collectively suggest that doing so will lower cost, increase speed-to-market and improve customer experience, but only if executives commit to the organisational change required to sustain continuous innovation. ^[1][4][3][2]

📌 Reference Map:

##Reference Map:

• ^[1] (RCR Wireless) – Paragraph 1, Paragraph 2, Paragraph 3, Paragraph 5, Paragraph 6, Paragraph 7, Paragraph 8, Paragraph 9
• ^[4] (Accenture) – Paragraph 2, Paragraph 6, Paragraph 9
• ^[3] (TXO) – Paragraph 4, Paragraph 9
• ^[5] (TXO) – Paragraph 4
• ^[6] (TXO) – Paragraph 4
• ^[7] (TXO) – Paragraph 4
• ^[2] (NTT DATA) – Paragraph 5, Paragraph 9

Source: Fuse Wire Services