Carrier Routing Market Report 2026

The carrier routing market size has grown strongly in recent years. It will grow from $13.08 billion in 2025 to $14.04 billion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.3%. The growth in the historic period can be attributed to growth of traditional telecom carrier interconnection systems, expansion of international voice traffic, development of fixed line communication infrastructure, rise of internet backbone networks, increasing demand for bandwidth optimization.

The carrier routing market size is expected to see strong growth in the next few years. It will grow to $18.79 billion by 2030 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.6%. The growth in the forecast period can be attributed to surge in global data traffic volumes, expansion of 5G and edge computing networks, adoption of AI driven network optimization, growth of cloud communication services, increasing need for real time traffic engineering. Major trends in the forecast period include dynamic multi-carrier traffic routing optimization in telecom networks, rising adoption of software defined networking for carrier management, increasing demand for low latency global voice and data routing, expansion of cloud based carrier routing platforms, growing focus on network redundancy and fault tolerant routing systems.

The increasing mobile data traffic is anticipated to drive the expansion of the carrier routing market in the coming period. Mobile data traffic refers to the growing volume of digital data transmitted over cellular networks through smartphones, tablets, and connected devices. Mobile data traffic is increasing as individuals are increasingly utilizing data-heavy applications such as video streaming, online gaming, and cloud-based services that demand continuous and high-volume data exchange. Carrier routing effectively manages and directs large volumes of mobile data traffic across multiple network paths, optimizing bandwidth utilization, minimizing congestion, and ensuring smooth connectivity for data-intensive applications. For instance, in June 2024, according to a report by Ericsson, a Sweden-based telecommunications company, mobile network data traffic grew by around 6% quarter-on-quarter from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024, reaching a total global volume of 145 exabytes (EB) during the same period. Therefore, the increasing mobile data traffic is driving the expansion of the carrier routing market.

Key companies operating in the carrier routing market are focusing on developing innovative solutions such as silicon-based carrier routing platforms to enhance network capacity, improve traffic efficiency, and support high-speed data transmission at scale. Silicon-based carrier routing platforms are advanced networking systems using specialized routing chips (ASICs) for ultra-fast packet processing, helping operators increase capacity, lower latency, and improve energy efficiency in large-scale 5G and cloud networks. For example, in March 2023, Cisco Systems, a US-based technology company, introduced Cisco’s new 28.8T / 36 x 800G line card, a high-performance carrier routing hardware component designed for next-generation service provider and internet backbone networks. The line card delivers up to 28.8 terabits per second of aggregate switching and routing capacity, enabling large-scale operators to support rapidly increasing traffic generated by 5G deployment, cloud-native applications, and AI-driven data workloads. It provides 36 ports of 800 gigabit ethernet, allowing extremely high-density bandwidth aggregation within a single modular chassis while improving space utilization and power efficiency per bit transported. Built on Cisco’s silicon one architecture, it integrates a programmable routing ASIC that enhances packet forwarding efficiency, reduces latency, and ensures predictable performance across complex network environments.

In July 2025, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, a US-based technology company, acquired Juniper Networks Inc. for an undisclosed value. Through this acquisition, Hewlett Packard Enterprise sought to reinforce its position in AI-driven and cloud-native networking by building a comprehensive end-to-end IT portfolio and enhancing its capabilities across enterprise, data center, and service provider environments to better address rising demand for AI and hybrid cloud infrastructure. Juniper Networks Inc. is a US-based technology company specializing in networking hardware and software solutions, including carrier routing solutions.

Major companies operating in the carrier routing market are Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Dell Technologies Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fujitsu Limited, NEC Corporation, Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Nokia Corporation, ZTE Corporation, Arista Networks Inc., Ciena Corporation, ADTRAN Holdings Inc., Ribbon Communications Inc., HFCL Limited, Allied Telesis Inc., Aviat Networks Inc., DriveNets Ltd., Arrcus Inc., 6WIND S.A., RtBrick Inc.

North America was the largest region in the carrier routing market in 2025. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in the carrier routing market report are Asia-Pacific, South East Asia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, Africa. The countries covered in the carrier routing market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA, Canada, Italy, Spain.

The carrier routing market consists of revenues earned by entities by providing services such as traffic routing management, inter-carrier connectivity, network optimization, policy-based routing, bandwidth management, signaling and session control, and routing analytics. The market value includes the value of related goods sold by the service provider or included within the service offering. The carrier routing market also includes sales of session border controllers, routers, switches, signaling transfer points, network gateways, and routing management software platforms. Values in this market are ‘factory gate’ values, that is, the value of goods sold by the manufacturers or creators of the goods, whether to other entities (including downstream manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and retailers) or directly to end customers. The value of goods in this market includes related services sold by the creators of the goods.

The market value is defined as the revenues that enterprises gain from the sale of goods and/or services within the specified market and geography through sales, grants, or donations in terms of the currency (in USD unless otherwise specified).

The revenues for a specified geography are consumption values that are revenues generated by organizations in the specified geography within the market, irrespective of where they are produced. It does not include revenues from resales along the supply chain, either further along the supply chain or as part of other products.

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