BELMONT, CA — May 20, 2026 — Exact Ventures recently published its Session Border Controller (SBC) Market Share and Total Market Analysis for 1Q 2026.

The SBC market faced a soft quarter, with both service provider (SP-SBC) and enterprise (E-SBC) segments pulling back — Nokia’s SP-wireline results stood out as a particular source of order volatility. Despite the near-term softness, the structural growth story for SP-wireless SBC remains intact, as operators continue investing in IMS and VoLTE modernization ahead of 5G SA services like 5G New Calling, with a broader shift toward cloud-native (CNF) architectures expected to support a recovery later in 2026.

On the enterprise side, SBC demand is being reshaped by forces well beyond typical IT budget cycles. Trade policy uncertainty and tariffs are weighing on enterprise spending, while the broader shift from labor (Opex) to AI infrastructure (Capex) is changing the calculus on traditional voice investment. At the same time, a new growth vector is emerging: enterprise voice orchestration, where SBCs play a critical role assuring call quality, security, and protocol normalization across AI-driven conversational platforms like UCaaS, Teams, and Zoom. The market is also shifting toward SBC-as-a-service models bundled into UC and call center agreements.

How will SP-SBC and E-SBC vendor positioning evolve as voice infrastructure transitions to cloud-native, AI-orchestrated platforms? Our 1Q26 report breaks each market down, vendor-by-vendor, share across SP-SBC and E-SBC, by region, along with a full 5-year forecast through 2030.

For more information or to request the full report, contact:
Greg Collins
Exact Ventures
greg@exactventures.com