The control illusion: how telecom outsourced its own future
January 22, 2026
The telecom industry is accelerating its adoption of modern technology to change the cost and speed structures of delivery and create new business revenue. Both outcomes have been challenged despite the investments. In a three-part article series, we ask why this is the case, what can be done to identify and resolve the root causes, and what is required to create new business platforms for growth.
The three articles will be as follows:
Part 1: The Control illusion: How Telecom Outsourced Its Own Future
Part 2: Intelligent Growth: Scaling Networks as Software, not Infrastructure
Part 3: From Connectivity to New Revenue: Designing Telecom Businesses for the AI Era
This is part 1: “The Control illusion: How Telecom Outsourced Its Own Future”
Telecom issues in general
In general, all telecom operators suffer from five problems:
Inertia – the lack of ability to move quickly.
Silos – not one coherent understanding.
Legacy – stuck with the past.faced by telecom operators are strengths
Talent – more in procurement than technology.
Irrelevance – impossible to make new solutions with the above 4 problems.
As an industry we try and solve these problems through the introduction of new generations of telecom technology (the “Gs”) or the adoption of technology from outside the industry that has changed business performance elsewhere (past examples: cloud, APIs, new example: AI). These attempts have not translated to business change in telecom, however, the same cost structures, speed and business success remains.
This is down to one simple truth. The problems are symptoms of structural issues, not technical ones. The way a telecom has to orchestrate its business operations is the problem. Over the last 20 years, telecom operators have increasingly outsourced their technical dependence to vendors, and this has increasingly outsourced business control to them. Vendors have different business models and definitions of business success. For example: to win as much business as possible from their operator customers.
The problems in telecom operators are strengths when seen from the telecom vendor perspective.
Legacy is an incumbent vendor’s advantage, making change hard.
Silos are created by competitive vendors all trying to do what others deliver.
Inertia is defined by each vendor's roadmap controlling when a telecom operator can deliver a new offering – and all vendors have to align.
Talent (lack of) allows vendors to own system designs and roadmaps.
Irrelevance (third order) is when no new solution is possible since vendors do not invest in your business but rather in their market (selling networks to telecom) and their own system design, not yours.
What is the solution?
Successful modern technology companies do not outsource their ownership, system design, and knowledge, to the supplying vendors. The technology platforms their businesses run on ARE their business and if they outsourced the design and control of them, then they are outsourcing the control of their differentiation in the market. This is exactly what has happened to telecom operators.
The root cause, the true enemy of success, is lack of control.
It is not possible to solve for any of the other factors without solving the root control issue.
Technology leaders care more about owning and controlling their operational platform and having one internal consistent business operation, rather than one technology standard. The concept of a technology standard magically translating into business success is a delusion that needs to be stamped out. A successful business uses the most appropriate technologies that are fit for purpose, not the other way around.
Build everything yourself? NO.
Technology leaders do not build everything themselves, but everything they source fits into their consistent system design; it does not accommodate suppliers dictating how solutions are integrated. This would create silos, inertia, legacy islands, and so on – exactly what we see in telecom today.
To reiterate:
Do technology companies use component suppliers? Yes.
Can the components be large? Yes.
But the components integrate into their business and operations, not create parallel systems of their own.
Rakuten knows this because Rakuten is a technology company and runs over 70+ businesses online, including telecom. Each company has its own supporting business, system and operational design. When entering a traditional business, Rakuten always digitalizes all processes, moves the business experience and support online, and continuously improves the cost, speed, and business performance.
In telecom, Rakuten Mobile uses traditional vendors as component suppliers everywhere, but each one of those vendors fits into Rakuten Mobile’s operating model, not the other way around.
Rakuten Symphony, the enabling partner company, provides Rakuten Mobile platforms, blueprints and proven operating models so it retains control, system design and differentiation to monetize the system.
Conclusion
Traditional telecom has a structural problem because it has outsourced control.
It is not possible to solve the highly visible symptomatic problems of inertia, silos, legacy, talent, and irrelevance, without first solving the root cause of the problem.
The good news is that AI is both disrupting the status quo and making technology change faster and easier than before. However outsourcing control of AI design to vendors will only exacerbate the existing problems and empower the vendor community more.
Vendors are not the enemy here, but vendors are not your business – you are.
The rest of this series will address how to create this change.
Part 2: Intelligent Growth: Scaling Networks as Software, not Infrastructure
Part 3: From Connectivity to New Revenue: Designing Telecom Businesses for the AI Era
It’s time to replace procurement pride with technology competence and control.
symphony.rakuten.com/blog/...elecom-outsourced-its-own-future
