Telecoms capex worldwide: trends and forecasts 2019–2031

Telecoms capex (including capex from non-operators) worldwide peaked in 2022 at USD386 billion; by 2024, it had fallen by 9% to USD350 billion. As such, questions remain over how long the decline will last and whether there will be a rebound.

This report provides granular capex forecasts for infrastructure, hardware and software by asset type and source for 8 global regions and 13 individual countries, plus the EU.

It provides historical data from 2019 and forecasts to 2031 for capex by:

• source: operators, infracos, content and application providers (CAPs) and enterprises
• network asset type: wireline access, wireless access, wireless x-haul and packet core, transport networks, operator data-centre and cloud stack spend and capitalised software
• category: infrastructure and technology
• new versus legacy network
• growth versus maintenance.

The report also provides an explanation of the spending trends we see.

Questions answered in this report

• What do we expect the trends in telecoms capex to be between now and 2031, and what are the drivers for investment?
• Will concerns about slowing traffic growth result in lower spending?
• For which technologies or architecture will operator spending grow, and for which will spending decline?
• How much capital spending will be made by non-traditional operators, wholesale providers and cloud or enterprise co-investors?