Global WAN Services

For this mature WAN market, AI integration, automation and customer experience can provide the differentiation to address ever-changing enterprise needs to deliver on digital business initiatives. I&O leaders can use this research to evaluate and select optimal global network service partners.

Market Definition

Gartner defines global WAN services as POP-based services supporting multiregional corporate networks. These services address enterprise challenges such as hybrid working practices, accelerating digital and cloud transformations and improving enterprise network agility. Providers own and operate their own global core networks and sell directly to the client. Services include transport-centric/unmanaged, managed, co-managed network services, or network as a service via a monthly fixed or usage-based fee model. Core transport services are often complemented by ancillary services like carrier-based cloud interconnect, SD-WAN, SASE or managed services. Services are measurable and consumable through web-based customer interfaces via portals and programmable APIs.

As digital business initiatives increase demands on the enterprise network, the need for reliable bandwidth continues to grow. Growing cloud workloads and the rise in application-specific traffic are the main drivers for increases in bandwidth. Gartner has also observed AI and machine learning (ML) being used in network monitoring, optimization and provisioning to quickly address shifting requirements, such as SaaS and evolving infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) based applications. As a result, SaaS and these associated applications are putting pressure and a level of criticality never before seen to ensure optimal performance and unfailing support.

Enterprises rely on global WAN services to deliver global and regional fixed, wide-area networking connectivity. These services consist of backbone network transport and last-mile access connections to deliver connectivity to individual enterprise sites, such as large or remote/branch office locations. Although these are core to the offer, service providers also offer more transformational capabilities enabled by the underlay service network.

Report 2025

Here is a summary of the vendors featured in the Gartner magic quadrant 2025 report.
For the full analysis and detailed insights, you can read the report here and view the magic quadrant graphic here.

Market Status	Market Vendor
Leader	Orange Business
Leader	AT&T
Leader	BT
Leader	Verizon
Leader	NTT
Leader	Vodafone
Leader	Tata Communications
Niche Player	GTT Communications
Challenger	Colt

Report 2024

Here is a summary of the vendors featured in the Gartner magic quadrant 2024 report.
For the full analysis and detailed insights, you can read the report here and view the magic quadrant graphic here.

Market Status	Market Vendor
Leader	Orange Business
Leader	AT&T
Leader	Tata Communications
Leader	BT
Leader	NTT
Leader	Vodafone
Leader	Verizon
Niche Player	GTT Communications
Niche Player	RIEDEL Networks
Challenger	Colt Technology Services
Challenger	Deutsche Telekom
Challenger	Comcast Business