What Our Latest Future Digital Award Winners Reveal About Telecoms in 2026

February 2026

Telecoms & Connectivity

Alex Webb

Senior Research Analyst

Last month, we announced the winners of the Telco Innovation Awards 2026, recognising the companies setting the pace across key telecommunications markets and technologies worldwide.

This year saw a record number of submissions, spanning areas including messaging, networks, connectivity, roaming, security, and anti-fraud. Each entry was assessed by a panel of senior Juniper Research analysts and scored against a consistent set of criteria:

• Product innovation
• Features and benefits
• Product partnerships
• Certification and compliance
• Future business prospects

Let's take a closer look at the awards categories that generated the strongest interest from vendors, and what those wins say about where the telecoms market is heading in 2026.

AI Innovation in Telco

Winners: Netcracker Agentic AI Solution (Platinum Award), Vida (Gold Award)

Like many other industries, AI continued to be a central technology to many enterprises’ strategies and investments, with mobile network operators integrating AI technology to increase autonomy and efficiency in network operations. In 2026, one significant opportunity for greater autonomy will be the implementation of AI agents in commercial network operations.

However, the opportunities for mobile network operators and other telecommunications players to innovate with AI are far broader than simply using AI in the network itself. For example, AI can be used to simplify technician access to networks, or to improve the customer experience.

Best AI Agent Solution

Winners: Infobip AI Agent for WhatsApp Flows & Destination Scoring for WhatsApp (Platinum Award); BTS TALKINGbits (Gold Award)

AI agents are a rapidly emerging technology, with enterprises forecast to spend almost $7 billion on AI agents for communications by 2027. AI agents are being used to automate and personalise the customer experience, with enterprises not only wanting to increase efficiency but also improve conversion rates and customer satisfaction.

Juniper Research believes that a key focus for AI agent vendors needs to be simple agent building and management. Enterprises frequently struggle with areas such as latency and compliance; limiting their return on investment. Moreover, vendors must prioritise collaborating with enterprises for realistic implementations which are narrow in scope. Promising transformative AI agents which eliminate the role of human agents in the customer experience not only leaves enterprises disappointed, but misallocates investment resources.

Best Cellular IoT Initiative

Winners: Eseye AnyNet SMARTconnect (Platinum Award); Motive IMPACT IoT (Gold Award)

Cellular IoT is an extremely diverse market, with more than 4 billion cellular IoT connections globally in 2026. Juniper Research expects that a major opportunity for optimisation will be SGP.32; the GSMA’s latest standard for IoT eSIM remote provisioning.

Juniper Research believes that SGP.32 offers IoT connectivity providers a major opportunity to deliver their customers with increased flexibility and control over their cellular IoT connectivity. However, the most successful providers will be able to simplify the integration and use of SGP.32 for enterprises, which currently pose a major challenge.

Messaging Innovation of the Year

Winners: Interop Technologies RBM-IQ (Platinum Award); Movius MultiLine (Gold Award)

A critical area for innovation over the next year will be Rich Communications Services (RCS), with Juniper Research believing a major area for innovation in 2026 will be P2A use cases. Google is enabling enterprises to trigger RCS conversations from clicks via search results, with leading innovators providing enterprises with the tools to convert clicks into revenue.

Another major innovation opportunity for messaging providers in 2026 will be OTT messaging channels such as WhatsApp, for which enterprises are increasingly interested in using to communicate with their customers. One area Juniper Research believes will be a focus for innovation is conversational commerce, with WhatsApp being used to make sales to consumers via a conversation with a chatbot or AI agent.

Network API Solution Innovation 

Winners: Vonage Identity Insights API (Platinum Award); WaveMaker WaveXD (Gold Award)

Over the next year, Juniper Research believes that network APIs will offer mobile network operators’ considerable opportunities for revenue, with total mobile network operator revenue from network APIs forecast to exceed $600 million. Likewise, players such as CPaaS providers and mobile identity vendors will have sizeable opportunities for revenue; aggregating APIs and building full solutions for reducing fraud, as well as increasing the effectiveness and security of network-based authentication.

The main area for network API monetisation and innovation in 2026 will be authentication and fraud prevention; with mobile identity vendors, in particular, being well-positioned to build services around Number Verification, SIM swap, and Know Your Customer (KYC) APIs.

Travel eSIM Solution of the Year

Winners: Telna (Platinum Award); Thales Travel Connect (Gold Award)

Over the next year, travel eSIMs will further solidify their role in providing connectivity as consumers travel. Travel eSIM revenue will exceed $8 billion in 2030, with consumers increasingly swapping out roaming connectivity and services for travel eSIMs. Juniper Research believes that there will be significant opportunities for travel eSIM vendors to increase revenue in 2026, with travel SIM services which are resold by enterprises and bundled with their additional services.

It is also expected that in 2026, innovative travel eSIM providers will provide increasingly personalised travel eSIM services for consumers. For example, mobile network operators can leverage information on typical cellular data usage to recommend travel eSIM deals, or vendors can work with enterprises to integrate with customer relationship managers to optimise deals promoted to consumers. 

Alex is a Senior Research Analyst within Juniper Research’s Telco & Connectivity team, focusing on the latest developments in operator and telecommunications markets. His latest reports include MVNO in a Box, Network APIs, and Direct to Satellite.