Survey Claims Broadband ISPs Expect AI and Streaming to “Crush” Today’s Networks

A new survey of 200 “senior telecom decision-makers” from the USA, UK, and Australia, which was conducted by network technology firm RtBrick, has claimed that broadband ISP and mobile operators are at risk of being “overwhelmed by the demands of AI and streaming bandwidth” in the next 5 years – around 80% of respondents expect it to “crush” today’s networks.

According to RtBrick’s State of Disaggregation’ Report, the survey finds fault with people and processes. Top of the list is a lack of backing and appetite to change from leadership (93%); crippling complexity around operational transformation (42%) – ranging from redesigning architectures and workflows, to retooling how networks are monitored, automated, and supported – and a shortage of specialist skills/staff (38%) – necessary to design, deploy, and operate next-generation networks.

The result is said to be an “industry that knows what to do, has the budget to do it, yet struggles with execution“. At the same time, the data also appears to indicate that customer expectations may be “rising faster than the networks designed to meet them“.

The survey finds that almost 87% of respondents expect customers to demand significantly higher broadband speeds by 2030, while 79% believe those customers will pay more for it. But we have our doubts about the expectation vs reality of this. Multi-gigabit broadband speeds are already a thing in the UK for those covered by FTTP, and the vast majority would struggle to fully harness even 1Gbps, let alone several gigabits. On the other hand, marketing departments may well fuel a battle over the pursuit of ever-faster speeds, regardless of whether people can actually utilise it.

At the same time, aggressive competition in the UK is also keeping prices low, and we can’t currently see either AI or Streaming fuelling a massive increase in demand above existing levels – at least not at the consumer level (businesses may be different). Instead, we’d expect consumer demand to continue growing roughly aligned to current trends, but there’s admittedly no accounting for any unexpected developments that might crop up.

Back to the survey and half of all leaders admit they still lack confidence in delivering services at a viable cost, while 84% say customer expectations are already outpacing their networks (we’ve yet to see much hard evidence for that), and 81% concede their current architectures are nowhere near ready for the next wave of AI and streaming traffic.

Pravin S Bhandarkar, CEO and Founder of RtBrick, said:

“Senior leaders, engineers, and support staff inside operators have made their feelings clear: the bottleneck isn’t capacity, it’s decision-making. Disaggregated networks are no longer an experiment. They’re the foundation for the agility, scalability, and transparency operators need to thrive in an AI-driven, streaming-heavy future.”

The term disaggregated networks typically refers to a network architecture where hardware and software components are separated, which allows for more flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness compared to traditional systems. This is not to be confused with software-defined networking, although they are related concepts that can work together.

Additional Survey Highlights

➤ 91% are willing to invest in disaggregation, and 95% plan to deploy within five years, with 90% saying it needs to happen faster than currently planned.

➤ Only one in fifty senior leaders has confirmed they’re “in deployment” with disaggregation today (quite a few of the biggest market players are doing this), while 49% remain stuck in early-stage “exploration”, and 38% are still “in planning”.

➤ Every leader surveyed claimed they’re “using” or “planning to use” AI in network operations, from planning and optimisation to fault resolution. But 93% say they cannot unlock AI’s full value without richer, real-time network data. Meanwhile, 50% say their infrastructure must become AI-ready, while 37% highlight the urgent need for stronger real-time analytics capabilities to realise AI’s true potential.

➤ When asked what they expect disaggregation to deliver, operators focused on outcomes that map directly to board-level priorities:

• 54% want more automation
• 54% want stronger supply chain resilience
• 51% want better energy efficiency
• 48% want lower CapEx and OpEx
• 33% want to break vendor lock-in

Transformation priorities align with those goals, with automation and agility (57%) ranked first, followed by vendor flexibility (55%), cost efficiency and sustainability (45%).

➤ 90% of operators are demanding that their traditional vendors provide disaggregated options within three years.

Naturally, RtBrick could be said to have a vested interest in the results of this survey (they sell some related solutions), which may well also be at risk of a selection bias. At the same time, it’s worth remembering that most networks go through big core upgrades every few years and will ultimately adapt to requirements, just as they’ve always done.

In the end we highly doubt that any UK providers will face a network “crush” and, indeed, the survey might have produced more reflective results by filtering out to focus more on the network engineers (instead of company bosses) and splitting the results by country (the USA, UK and Australia have quite a few differences).