AI server demand is hoovering up DRAM and NAND, and while it has been known to hurt consumer kit, it seems telcos could be suffering.
Beancounters at Counterpoint Research have added up some numbers, divided them by shoe size, and concluded that memory price hikes are hurting router sales, which are having a knock-on effect on telcos.
OEMs without a secured supply and with weak negotiating clout. Counterpoint’s teardown work indicates that memory now accounts for more than 20 per cent of the bill of materials in low- to mid-end routers, up from about three per cent a year ago.
That is bad news for telcos pushing aggressive 2026 broadband rollouts, whether fibre or fixed wireless access, because procurement costs are rising just as supply becomes the real bottleneck.
Some operators also want to push AI CPE for fixed or wireless broadband, which means more compute and more memory, right when the market is making both expensive and awkward to get.
Counterpoint’s February 2026 Memory Price Tracker reckons prices will keep rising through June 2026 at least. Even if prices peak in the first half of 2026, the report warns that supply constraints are still likely to hang around.
PCs and budget smartphones have already been moaning about “mobile memory”, but routers, gateways and set-top boxes are getting it worse. Over the last nine months, smartphone memory prices jumped three times, while “consumer memory” used in broadband products surged almost seven times.
