Telecom operators

Telecom operators are splitting into two very different groups. National carriers with strong home turf like AIS, HKT, Telekom Malaysia, and China Unicom are barely feeling any AI-era pressure because their core mobile and fixed-line customers have nowhere cheaper to go, and several are turning their network assets into AI data center businesses on the side. The pain is concentrated in three places: state operators losing spectrum-sharing deals or market share to sharper domestic rivals (National Telecom, VNPT, China Telecom's mobile share loss to China Unicom), software-layer network resellers getting squeezed by hyperscalers building their own cross-cloud links (PCCW Global, TIME dotCom's cloud hosting), and pure CDN or edge companies that have already gone bankrupt or been absorbed (Edgio, StackPath, ChinaCache, KeyCDN). Data center and colocation operators sit in the middle, mostly holding steady for now but facing a slow threat from hyperscalers self-building capacity instead of renting. The one thing that decides survival here is whether a company owns the physical last-mile connection to customers. Anyone who just resells or layers software on top of someone else's network is exposed, while anyone who owns spectrum, fiber, or a data center campus with sovereign or regulatory lock-in keeps its revenue safe even as AI reshuffles the businesses built around that infrastructure.

Which telecom companies are most at risk from AI and cloud competition

National Telecom in Thailand already lost about 50 billion baht a year after its spectrum-sharing deals expired, and PCCW Global's Console Connect is losing ground to hyperscalers that now offer their own cross-cloud connections. Beijing Sinnet's hosting revenue has fallen for six straight years as Alibaba and Tencent take the AI compute business.

Are national telecom operators safe from hyperscalers like AWS and Google

Mostly yes for their core mobile and fixed-line business, since AIS, HKT, and Telekom Malaysia show almost no customer loss. The pressure hyperscalers create shows up instead in these companies' cloud and data center side businesses, like TIME dotCom's cloud hosting segment falling 10% year on year.

Why did Edgio and StackPath go out of business

Both were CDN companies that could not keep up with larger, cheaper rivals. Edgio went fully dark in January 2025 and had its customer contracts bought by Akamai for 125 million dollars, while StackPath collapsed in 2023 and Akamai bought its roughly 100 enterprise contracts for about 45 million dollars.

Which data center operators are gaining share from AI demand

AirTrunk, Vantage Data Centers, ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, EdgeConneX, and Keppel Data Centres all show very low pressure scores with no visible customer losses, as they build hyperscale capacity directly leased to cloud and AI tenants.

Who is winning the telecom market in Vietnam

Viettel is winning, holding 54-57% of Vietnam's mobile market compared to state-owned VNPT's 17-30%, with MobiFone also outcompeting VNPT in the domestic telecom and cloud market.

Why is China Telecom gaining on China Unicom

China Telecom's mobile revenue share grew from 12.3% to 21.1% between 2022 and 2025 and it is also growing faster in AI and data center investment, putting pressure on China Unicom's position even though China Unicom's core customers remain largely intact.

• Any telecom operator announcing it is converting spare network or fiber capacity into AI data centers, following the pattern seen at Telekom Malaysia and AIS
• Hyperscalers like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud announcing new self-built network or cross-cloud connectivity features
• Colocation and data center operators naming new anchor AI tenants versus staying silent on tenant announcements