Welcome to the latest Fierce Network Research Bulletin, where this week we have bad news for communication service providers (CSP) vendors about customer satisfaction, as well as the usual control plane, stat of the week and dropped packet.

• CSPs are dissatisfied with vendors’ support in AI and automation implementation
• Only 42% of CSPs partner with vendors for AI, with over half planning to develop the technology internally, indicating low confidence in vendor partnerships
• Nokia and Cisco are notably absent from the list of AI/automation providers

Communication service providers (CSPs) are just plain unhappy with the help they’re getting from vendors in implementing AI and automation in their networks and businesses, according to our recent survey of CSP leaders.

We surveyed 120 CSP leaders in April and May about the overall state of AI and automation on their networks and in their overall business, including using those tools to enhance efficiency, reduce costs and improve service quality. The survey covered a lot of ground.

Download the free report here: Telecom automation and AI: Let’s get real. Also, watch a webinar discussing the findings, featuring me and Fierce Network founder Steve Saunders.

We looked at CSP attitudes toward vendors as part of our survey. And the findings were grim.

Fewer than half of the CSP leaders we surveyed said they’re satisfied that their incumbent vendors are partnering effectively with them on AI and automation. Just 17% of respondents said they’re “entirely satisfied” with their vendors and described those vendors as “brilliant.” A bit more than a quarter of respondents, 26%, described themselves as “very satisfied” with those vendors, and the vendors are “keeping up.”

Nearly half of respondents (47%) described themselves as “somewhat satisfied” with their vendor relationships and said the vendors are “OK.” An additional 10% described themselves as dissatisfied—6% somewhat, 2% very and 2% extremely and ready to fire their vendors.

You may be looking at that 47% who rated their vendors as OK and saying to yourself, “That’s not so bad.” But in this context, OK is not OK! A business that describes its supplier relationship as “OK” is held in the relationship only by switching costs. They’ll find a new partner as soon as a sweet deal comes along.

Looking inward on AI and automation

CSPs’ vendor dissatisfaction is reflected in development plans for AI. Only 42% of CSPs are partnering with one or more vendors for AI; more than half of CSPs say they plan to develop the technology internally.

Also in our survey, and detailed in the report: We asked our CSP respondents who are partnering with vendors to name those vendors. That was a fill-in-the-blank question; we didn’t give the CSPs any suggested names.

Six familiar names floated to the surface, with none gaining significant market leadership: Huawei and IBM were named by 7% of respondents each, followed by Amazon/AWS and Microsoft at 5% each, and Ericsson and ServiceNow at 4% each. Some 28 other vendors received single mentions; download the free report to see those names.

These responses are suggestive rather than indicative; we just don’t have enough patterns in our responses to draw conclusions. But we can make a couple of intriguing observations.

First, vendors traditionally considered as enterprise players, such as Microsoft and AWS, seem to be doing about as well as traditional CSP suppliers like Huawei and Ericsson.

Also of interest, Huawei is making about as strong a showing as anybody else, despite the bans on using its equipment in the U.S. and elsewhere.

And Nokia and Cisco are notably absent from the named AI/automation provider list. This is dire news indeed for those two former market-dominating players — when CSP technology leaders are listing their partners, those two companies’ names don’t even come up.

As for Cisco: Our CSP execs were surveyed before that vendor’s big announcement this month that it plans to build AI into its entire product line, including tools for optimizing networks, customer service and collaboration, and also position itself as the leading vendor for building networks to serve the special needs of artificial intelligence. We’ll see whether this news builds Cisco’s reputation among CSPs.

CSPs’ low confidence in their vendor partners is terrible news for those vendors—but it should also be exhilarating for them. AI and automation leadership is wide open; no vendor has a majority or plurality of market share. The market is highly competitive, with plenty of space for a startup to quickly bloom into a titan or an incumbent vendor to revitalize their business.

Control plane 

What I'm reading this week

• Fiber optic cables can do more than just broadband [Linda Hardesty / Fierce Network] — Fiber optic cables have a variety of uses other than just carrying bits — they are veritable multitools that can be used as sensors to detect vehicle movements, nearby digging, the health of bridges and railways, liquid and gas leaks and more
• Let's take a look at Oracle's love and hate relationship with open source software [Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols/The Register]
• Apple announced RCS with a whimper when it should have been a bang [Emma Roth / The Verge]
• CBRS rule reset could expand private network deployments [Martha DeGrasse / Fierce Network] — Changes to the rules for Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) mean less uncertainty for enterprises deploying private networks. Google stands to benefit but also expects more competition.
• Is the 4.9 GHz ‘giveaway’ a bad idea? Verizon, Boston and New York think so. [Monica Alleven / Fierce Network] — Opponents of a proposal to grant FirstNet — and by extension AT&T — a nationwide license to the 4.9 GHz band argue that the band should remain in the control of local authorities. For example, cities like New York and Boston use the 4.9 GHz band for transportation and emergency communications. Analysts value the band at $14 billion.
• Also: A homemade paper-tape reader brings the old storage medium back to life. — “ … the storage media of yesteryear has so much more personality than that of today. … there’s a certain charm to a mass storage device that can potentially slice off your finger.”
• And my colleague Diana Goovaerts was on the scene in Copenhagen for TM Forum’s DTW: Ignite event. I’m still catching up on all their great coverage — you can do the same on our DWT: Ignite page

Stat of the week

At least half of C-level executives will have cybersecurity risk built into the performance requirements for their employment contracts, according to Gartner research (subscription required).

Dropped packet

That’s the Fierce Network Research Bulletin for this week. If you want more Fierce Network in your inbox, with all its rich and satisfying flavor, sign up for our daily newsletters here.