As AI demand accelerates, telecom providers are increasingly optimistic about their prospects for selling connectivity services. Among the opportunities, they see high bandwidth wavelength services playing a starring role — particularly as mass enterprise AI adoption takes off.
To learn more about how telecom providers are positioning themselves for AI, Omdia — working together with Nokia — conducted a global survey to 122 telecommunications provider respondents in June and July 2026. This blog highlights some key findings from this survey.
AI optimism is high
Telecom providers are overwhelmingly optimistic about the future of high bandwidth wavelength services for AI connectivity. 61% of respondents identified high bandwidth wavelength services as one of the top two revenue opportunities for AI — significantly ahead of all other service options, including IP routed services, private networks/managed optical fiber networks (MOFNs), dark fiber and emerging spectrum services.
AI is transitioning from hyperscaler-dominated AI model training to training combined with mass enterprise usage (i.e., inference), including the proliferation of agentic AI. Telecom providers believe they are well-positioned to capitalize on the rise of inference and that high bandwidth wavelength services will be their primary tool.
Over the next three years, what two transport services do you expect to be your biggest revenue opportunity from AI demand? (Select two)
Hyperscalers require rapid delivery
Omdia survey data shows that strong SLAs, high service availability, low latency and competitive pricing are the top four customer buying criteria for high speed wavelength services. We believe the first three criteria are becoming table stakes in a highly competitive services market where pricing is also a primary customer consideration. These are operators’ most demanding customers — but also highly lucrative ones.
In addition, rapid service delivery is an increasingly important requirement among hyperscalers and neoclouds — and especially important for the subset of telecom providers that are targeting these high volume and very demanding customer segments. As one network executive from a Tier 1 North American operator selling heavily into the hyperscaler market told Omdia:
[The] delivery intervals are just as important as price in many cases … The delivery intervals have become less and less negotiable than anything else. With the defined routes, we’ve been able to work with customers on finding something that we can support capacity-wise and still meet their needs. So there’s some wiggle room there versus their ideal route. But some of our largest customers are pretty aggressive on delivery intervals.
Analyzing the top rankings of Tier 1 telecom providers (i.e., respondents with greater than $1bn in annual revenue) underscores this point. Among the largest network operators, rapid service delivery ranks fourth on the list of buyer criteria — and very closely behind pricing. Today, Tier 1 telecom providers are the operators most likely to have the scale and fiber footprint to serve hyperscalers and large neoclouds. Thus, it makes sense that they are seeing this requirement more often.
Top Rank 1 and Rank 2 buying criteria for customers (Tier 1 operators only)
400G wave services enter the mainstream
Among high bandwidth wavelength services, telecom providers are particularly focused on 400G services — not just for AI connectivity but across a wide swath of use cases.
Just under half of telecom providers surveyed (46%) either sell 400G wavelength services today or expect 400G services to be available by the end of 2026. An additional 49% of operators surveyed expect 400G wavelength availability by the end of 2028.
Furthermore, telecom providers are not just offering 400G wave services; they are also offering them broadly. 32% of operators surveyed are in the growing coverage phase (i.e., 26–50% of the network is 400G-capable) and an additional 30% in the advanced coverage phase (51–75% capable). At 16%, a small but impressive minority of telecom providers report near-full coverage of 400G wavelength service capabilities (75%-plus of the network is 400G-capable).
The 400G story is a consistent one: a large share of optical networks are 400G-capable today, and telecom providers are actively selling 400G wavelength services to customers.
800G wave service planning begins
In contrast to maturing 400G adoption, just 3% of operators surveyed report 800G wavelength service deployments today, with an additional 16% expecting deployments by the end of 2026. Still, operators expect a rapid rollout of 800G wavelength services in the 2027–28 timeframe, with 57% expecting to launch 800G waves commercially. By the end of 2028, just over three-quarters of telecom providers surveyed (76%) expect 800G wavelength service to be available.
But what about the underlying optical network infrastructure to deliver 400G and 800G wave services? For telecom providers, embedded optical engines are doing the heavy lifting — for now. While hyperscalers are already buying massive volumes of 800ZR/ZR+ coherent pluggable optics, Omdia finds that telecom providers are still in the early stages.
Just 3% of telecom providers surveyed report having 800G ZR/ZR+ modules currently in production, but they are showing serious interest. At 38%, a plurality are currently planning to test 800G ZR/ZR+. Additionally, 31% report that they are currently in lab testing (22%) or field trials (9%). Based on this data and interviews with telecom providers, we expect to see wave services supported over a mix of embedded and pluggable engines in 2027 and beyond.
What stage is your organization at in deploying 800G ZR/ZR+ coherent pluggable modules?
In the emerging AI era, high bandwidth wavelength services stand out as a clear path to revenue growth for telecom providers, with 400G service already hitting its stride and 800G service delivery on the horizon. Winning operators must deliver a combination of high capacity, high reliability, low latency, competitive price and rapid delivery. The opportunity is growing, but it is not waiting.
Download a free copy of the full survey reporthere.
This blog is sponsored by Nokia.
