Welcome to the second episode in our three-part series catching up on the most interesting stories in telecom from 2025, and looking forward to what we expect in 2026.
(If you’re just joining, you can go back and check out our first episode on transport network developments.)
Today’s episode focuses on all things pricing and enterprise networks. We’re joined by Rob Schult, who leads TeleGeography’s pricing practice, and Brianna Boudreau, who manages our SD-WAN and NaaS research.
These experts tackle questions like:
- Are we really seeing the rarest phenomenon: telecom pricing stability?
- What role is AI playing in this?
- Just how big are some backbone connections and how do those prices relate to lower sized circuits?
- Has SD-WAN become the norm in the enterprise networks world?
- Which SD-WAN players are left? Is SD-WAN mostly about security now?
Listen to the full episode below.
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Key Takeaways
Global Price Erosion Has Slowed
While historical trends typically show transport prices dropping between 10% and 20% annually, global price erosion has slowed, and prices on key routes like the Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Pacific have stabilized.
This stability on the Trans-Atlantic route is largely driven by hyperscalers, who now account for over 80% of allocated bandwidth. Because these massive companies consume the vast majority of supply and continue to fill existing capacity, there is little incentive for the limited number of carriers to lower prices for the remaining 20% of the market
Geopolitics is Creating Supply Bottlenecks and Price Hikes
Geopolitical conflicts, specifically in the Red Sea and Yemen, have caused significant delays in repairing existing cables and deploying new systems like Blue Ramen and SeaMeWe-6.
As a result, the Europe-to-Asia route is seeing a rare instance where carriers are rolling over leases at existing rates or even opportunistically increasing prices. While terrestrial bypass options exist across the Arabian Peninsula, they’re often cost-prohibitive, sometimes priced at twice the cost of the standard route.
SD-WAN has Reached Saturation and Consolidation
SD-WAN has transitioned from an emerging technology to a standard product in enterprise portfolios, with survey data indicating an adoption rate of approximately 75%.
The vendor landscape has consolidated significantly. Early players like Nokia, Citrix, and Riverbed have sunsetted their products, while major acquisitions—such as HPE buying Juniper and Arista buying VeloCloud—have reshaped the market. Further, the focus of SD-WAN has shifted, serving largely as a delivery mechanism for security services.
“Bandwidth on Demand” Remains a Niche Use Case
Despite the hype surrounding Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), the specific use case of “bandwidth on demand” (toggling capacity up and down) has seen limited adoption, with fewer than one in five enterprises utilizing it.
Most enterprises still prefer durable infrastructure, leaving dynamic bandwidth adjustments for niche scenarios like retail seasonality or events. Consequently, NaaS providers are prioritizing the expansion of their automated service footprints over developing granular, daily pricing models.
More Pricing and Enterprise Intel
AI & Enterprise Networks
How will AI impact enterprise networks?
This year we tackled this question with data from TeleGeography’s WAN Cost Benchmark—a customized platform that makes it easy to model and track your WAN network costs. Dive in:
Enterprise Networks on the Pod
Greg hosted a series of discussions in 2025 that covered best practices for building and maintaining a modern, secure enterprise network. And how vendors are evolving their services.
Some highlights:
SD-WAN Vendor Guide
This guide outlines the evolving vendor landscape so that you can understand the full scope of SD-WAN services offered by vendors, relevant security features, and emerging partnerships between companies developing these technologies.
We’ve extracted vendor profiles from TeleGeography’s Cloud and WAN Research Service to deliver this information at a glance, along with SD-WAN trends. Get the guide over here.
WAN Cost Benchmark
This interactive tool gives you market prices for WAN services based on your unique network, tailored to your specific site addresses, products, and bandwidths. Download sample data.
Network Pricing Database
This special pricing suite is a portal to TeleGeography’s network pricing data and analysis. The full suite consists of unique modules that correspond to network pricing data sets, all of which are available for purchase as individual pieces. Brush up on the available datasets.