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Telecom operators spent 2026 chasing growth without the capital drag of building everything themselves. From Stockholm to Sydney, many of the year's most visible deals share the same quiet logic. Across each one, operators acquired or leased networks, spectrum and platforms that already existed, sidestepping much of the expense and time involved in building from scratch.
The reward is faster access to capability without the expense of developing it internally.
Acquiring or leasing existing capability, rather than developing it internally, is increasingly a core growth strategy. The wholesale model alone is expanding fast. According to Future Market Insights, the global market for mobile virtual network operators is expected to grow from around USD 94 billion in 2026 to USD 195.6 billion by 2036, a compound annual rate of 7.6%.
Two forces are driving the shift:
Subscriber growth has slowed in mature markets, so network owners lease spare capacity to lift utilization and add revenue without new customer-acquisition costs.
Challenger brands lease tier-1 access to compete on price and experience, sidestepping the billions a national build would demand.
Dealmaking has followed. PwC's US telecom deals outlook recorded 37 transactions in the first quarter of 2026, the second-highest quarterly volume in two years.
Four deals from the past few months show how differently operators are putting this into practice.
Telia agreed on 8 April 2026 to acquire Telness, a Swedish mobile virtual network operator, from Nordic Communications Group. At closing, Telia will become the first mobile network operator to run Telness Tech's Seamless OS platform, a cloud-native system that Telness Tech says already powers more than 24 operators across the US and Europe. Telia, which has around four million mobile subscribers in Sweden, will keep Telness under its own brand inside its business-to-business arm. For Telia, the acquisition adds an established MVNO brand and technology platform without having to develop either in-house.
In the United Kingdom, the owners of the nexfibre joint venture (InfraVia, Liberty Global and Telefonica) agreed in February 2026 to acquire Substantial Group, the parent of alternative fibre operator Netomnia and the retail brands YouFibre and brsk. The £2 billion deal is expected to unlock £3.5 billion of investment and create a scaled wholesale fibre challenger to BT Openreach. It has not been waved through. The UK Competition and Markets Authority has referred the transaction to an in-depth Phase 2 investigation, with a decision due by mid-December 2026, so the targeted third-quarter completion depends on that clearance.
Amazon announced on 14 April 2026 a roughly USD 11.6 billion agreement to acquire Globalstar, handing it Globalstar's low-Earth-orbit satellite network, global spectrum licenses and ground infrastructure. Those assets will feed direct-to-device services on Amazon Leo, extending cellular coverage beyond the reach of terrestrial networks. Expected to close in 2027 subject to regulatory approval, the deal is a reminder that the next wave of competition may arrive from well outside traditional telecom.
In Australia, ASX-listed challenger Swoop Holdings signed a mobile wholesale agreement with TPG Telecom on 16 June 2026, giving its Moose Mobile brand access to TPG's national network. Swoop expects the new terms to improve its gross margin percentage by 50% across FY27 to FY29, while growing its mobile base from about 135,000 to more than 180,000 subscribers over three years. The company is pairing the deal with a new billing platform and an eSIM launch to deepen its relationships with households, complementing its residential nbn plans. Chief revenue officer David Michaels said securing tier-1 terms gives the business 'the commercial discipline and the network capability to grow mobile profitably'. For Swoop, leasing network capability offers a path to subscriber growth while improving the economics of each customer.
So what links a Swedish MVNO buyout, a British fibre deal, an American satellite acquisition and an Australian wholesale agreement? Each one reaches for capability that already exists. Three threads run through them:
Capital efficiency, with operators acquiring or leasing capability instead of funding years of construction.
A focus on margins and cost per user, so deals are judged on economics as much as coverage.
Speed to market, where a ready platform, network or spectrum holding can shortcut years of build and regulatory groundwork.
For challengers, that shift is encouraging. Access to tier-1 networks, spectrum and turnkey platforms means a well-run brand can compete on value and customer experience without the cost of a national build. The names worth following through the rest of 2026 are the ones turning acquired or leased capability into loyal subscribers and durable margins.
Marshall Thurlow is Director and Founder of Orion Marketing Pty Ltd. He is a digital marketer with expertise in SEO, website design, content marketing and project management.
