Operator sustainability: assessing the opportunities and risks for telecoms vendors 2025–2030

The range of sustainability initiatives being implemented by telecoms operators is creating opportunities – and risks – for software and equipment vendors. This report provides a framework for helping vendors to understand which areas of operator expenditure will increase or decline by 2030 due to sustainability-driven initiatives. 

Operators collectively spend more than USD1.4 trillion worldwide on products and services each year. However, their spending patterns are changing in response to the pressure to reduce their environmental impact. This report describes the array of sustainability-related adaptations that operators are introducing and evaluates the size of the opportunity and the level of risk that these changes present to equipment and software suppliers. It considers the implications of evolving procurement and supplier management activities and evaluates the impact of sustainability on equipment/software spending within our newly established operator sustainability taxonomy, which includes:

• RAN technology
• renewable energy equipment and energy storage
• legacy equipment
• software systems (including AI)
• ventilation and cooling systems
• fuel and vehicles
• customer premises equipment (CPE).

Questions answered in this report

• What are the main sustainability-led changes being made by telecoms operators, and what are the drivers of these changes?
• Will total operator expenditure rise or fall as a result of their ongoing sustainability initiatives, and how will the change in expenditure impact vendor-addressable markets?
• Which areas of operator expenditure will experience the most change?
• What risks do vendors face as a result of the changes being made by operators to improve sustainability?
• In which areas will operators’ sustainability efforts translate into growth opportunities for vendors?

Who should read this report

• Senior executives, strategy managers, product development, marketing and sales managers and procurement managers working within the telecoms supply chain, including at equipment vendors, engineering companies, software vendors and infrastructure providers (office buildings, data centres and towers).
• Operators wanting to understand how peer behaviours are changing.