State of Enterprise Telecom Spend 2026: Research Report

About This Research

The State of Enterprise Telecom Spend 2026 report is Mindglobal’s annual benchmark study of enterprise telecom spending patterns, waste identification, and optimization outcomes. The research documents how organizations across industries manage their telecom environments, where the most significant waste occurs, and what distinguishes companies that successfully reduce telecom costs from those that continue to overpay.

The 2026 edition focuses on four key areas: the shift toward managed mobility in post-pandemic hybrid work environments, carrier consolidation strategies and their impact on costs, the role of AI-driven invoice auditing in identifying billing errors at scale, and benchmark comparisons by industry vertical including healthcare, retail, finance, and manufacturing.

Key Findings by Category

Finding 1: Telecom Waste Is Pervasive and Growing

Across all industries and company sizes surveyed, the average enterprise wastes 18–22% of its annual telecom budget. This waste takes three primary forms: inactive or underutilized lines that continue to incur monthly charges (accounting for approximately 40% of waste), billing errors where carriers charge for services, features, or rates that differ from contracted terms (approximately 35% of waste), and unoptimized plans where organizations are paying for data, voice, or feature tiers that exceed actual usage (approximately 25% of waste).

The total recoverable waste across the surveyed organizations exceeded $2.3 billion annually — a figure that grows each year as telecom environments become more complex and harder to manage manually.

Finding 2: Formal TEM Programs Dramatically Outperform Self-Management

Organizations with formal Telecom Expense Management programs — whether managed internally with dedicated TEM software or outsourced to a provider like Mindglobal — consistently recover more savings and maintain those savings over time. In the first year, TEM-managed organizations recover an average of 23% of their previous year’s telecom spend. Without TEM, the same organizations average only 4–6% cost reduction year-over-year, primarily through carrier plan adjustments.

The performance gap widens over time. By year three, TEM-managed organizations are spending an average of 31% less per employee on telecom than organizations using self-managed approaches — not because they have less connectivity, but because they are paying market rates, eliminating waste, and continuously optimizing their environments.

Finding 3: Mobile is Now the Largest and Fastest-Growing Cost Category

For the first time in the survey’s history, mobile (wireless) services have surpassed fixed-line network services as the largest telecom cost category for enterprises. Mobile now represents 35–45% of enterprise telecom spend, up from 28% in 2022. The growth is driven by two factors: the expansion of enterprise mobile device fleets in hybrid work environments, and the increasing data consumption per device as employees rely on mobile data for productivity applications.

Organizations that have implemented Managed Mobility Services programs show significantly better control over mobile costs — an average of $18 per device per month less than organizations managing mobility in-house, across comparable device fleets.

Finding 4: Carrier Consolidation Delivers Compounding Savings

The survey found a strong correlation between the number of carriers an organization manages and its cost-per-seat. Organizations managing 6 or more carriers pay an average of 40% more per connected seat than organizations with 3 or fewer carriers. The excess cost comes from lost volume leverage in negotiations, higher administrative overhead, and inconsistent plan optimization across carriers.

Carrier consolidation — the process of renegotiating to fewer, larger contracts — is one of the highest-ROI initiatives in enterprise telecom management. Organizations that complete a consolidation effort typically realize 15–25% recurring cost reductions in their first 12 months.

Industry Benchmarks: Telecom Spend by Sector

Methodology

The State of Enterprise Telecom Spend 2026 survey was conducted by Mindglobal in Q1 2026. Respondents included 300 enterprise IT directors, CIOs, VP of Finance, and procurement leaders at organizations with 500 or more employees in North America. Respondents were screened to confirm direct involvement in telecom budgeting or management decisions. Survey data was supplemented with anonymized benchmarks from Mindglobal’s managed services client portfolio, providing real-world spend data from over 200 enterprise environments.

How Mindglobal Uses This Data

The research findings directly inform Mindglobal’s TEM and Managed Mobility Services delivery. Benchmark data from the survey helps Mindglobal identify where each client’s spend patterns deviate from industry norms — flagging areas where costs are abnormally high relative to peers and prioritizing those for immediate optimization. Clients benefit from the collective intelligence of the research, applied to their specific environments.

Mindglobal has been providing telecom expense management and managed mobility services to enterprise clients for decades, and the annual State of Enterprise Telecom Spend report represents a commitment to advancing the industry’s understanding of telecom cost patterns and optimization strategies.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who should read this report?

The State of Enterprise Telecom Spend 2026 report is designed for CIOs, IT directors, VP Finance, and procurement leaders responsible for managing enterprise telecom budgets. It is most valuable for organizations spending $250,000 or more annually on telecom services across voice, data, wireless, and network categories.

How current is the data in this report?

The 2026 report is based on survey data collected in Q1 2026 from enterprise decision-makers, supplemented by client portfolio data from Mindglobal’s managed services engagements. The report is updated annually to reflect current market conditions, carrier pricing shifts, and emerging technology impacts on enterprise telecom costs.

Is the report available at no cost?

Yes. The State of Enterprise Telecom Spend 2026 report is available at no cost to qualified enterprise telecom decision-makers. Request access through the form above, and a Mindglobal team member will send the full PDF report within one business day.

How does this compare to Gartner telecom benchmarks?

The Mindglobal research complements Gartner’s market research by focusing specifically on enterprise telecom spend optimization — waste identification, savings realization, and TEM program effectiveness — rather than broader market sizing and vendor analysis. The benchmarks are derived from real client data, making them highly actionable for organizations evaluating their own spend against peers.