Shortage of skills and lack of support from leadership are among the most frequently cited challenges to disaggregated network deployments

RtBrick today released its ‘State of Disaggregation’ report, examining the current state of networks globally and telecom operators’ efforts to address surging customer demands.

The survey revealed operators are at risk of being overwhelmed by the demands of streaming bandwidth in the next five years. The industry recognizes it needs to adopt next-generation disaggregated networks to survive, but struggles to take action.

Top findings from the survey reveal core components that are hindering operators’ progress, including:

• Organizations require more support from leadership to deploy disaggregation (93%)
• Complexity around operational transformation (42%), such as redesigning architectures and workflows
• Critical shortage of specialist skills/staff (38%) to manage disaggregated systems

Rising demand collides with outdated infrastructure

The survey finds that almost nine in ten operators (87%) expect customers to demand higher broadband speeds by 2030, while roughly the same (79%) state their customers expect costs to increase, suggesting they will pay more for it. Yet half of all leaders (49%) admit they lack complete confidence in delivering services at a viable cost. Eighty-four percent say customer expectations for faster, cheaper broadband are already outpacing their networks, while 81% concede their current architectures are not well-suited to handling the future increases in bandwidth demand, suggesting they may struggle with the next wave of AI and streaming traffic.

“Senior leaders, engineers, and support staff inside operators have made their feelings clear: the bottleneck isn’t capacity or budget, it’s decision-making,” said Pravin S Bhandarkar, CEO and Founder of RtBrick. “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.”

Disaggregation: from ambition to execution

Intent, however, is not the problem. The industry’s appetite to modernize is overwhelming: 91% are willing to invest in disaggregation, and 94% plan to deploy within five years, with 90% saying their organization needs to focus efforts on deploying disaggregation sooner than currently planned.

However, execution continues to trail ambition. Only one in twenty leaders has confirmed they’re “in deployment” today, while 49% remain stuck in early-stage “exploration”, and 38% are still “in planning”. Meanwhile, big-name operators such as AT&T, Deutsche Telekom, and Comcast are charging ahead and already actively deploying disaggregation at scale, demonstrating faster rollouts, greater operational control, and true vendor flexibility.

AI intensifies the urgency

Nearly every leader surveyed also claims their organization is “using” or “planning to use” AI in network operations, including for planning, optimization, and fault resolution. However, nine in ten (93%) say they cannot unlock AI’s full value without richer, real-time network data. This requires more open, modular, software-driven architecture, enabled by network disaggregation.

“Telco leaders see AI as a powerful asset that can enhance network performance,” said Zara Squarey, Research Manager at Vanson Bourne. “However, the data shows that without support from leadership, specialized expertise, and modern architectures that open up real-time data, disaggregation deployments may risk further delays.”

What operators want from disaggregation

When asked what benefits they expect disaggregation to deliver, operators focused on outcomes that could deliver the following benefits:

• 54% increased operational automation
• 54% enhanced supply chain resilience
• 51% improved energy efficiency
• 48% lower purchase and operational costs
• 33% reduced vendor lock-in

Transformation priorities align with those goals, with automation and agility (57%) ranked first, followed by vendor flexibility (55%), supply chain security (51%), cost efficiency (46%) and energy usage and sustainability (47%).

About the research

The ‘State of Disaggregation’ research was independently conducted by Vanson Bourne in June 2025 and commissioned by RtBrick to identify the primary drivers and barriers to disaggregated network rollouts. The findings are based on responses from 200 telecom decision makers across the US, UK, and Australia, representing operations, engineering, and design/Research and Development at organizations with 100 to 5,000 or more employees.

A snapshot of the report is available to download here.

About RtBrick

RtBrick Inc. has pioneered carrier routing software that runs on off-the-shelf hardware. It has applied the same approach to networks that the huge ‘cloud-natives’ have used to build and operate their web-scale IT services. RtBrick is a privately held company, incorporated in the USA, with staff located in Europe, India and Taiwan.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250819552586/en/