Top 12 Technology Trends That Have Been Observed in Telecom Industry
The telecom industry is undergoing massive structural changes. They are making their customer channels, content, and communication services digital. This is creating a new ecosystem of value and interconnected markets. Providers are trying to create high-performance networks that can deliver what their customers want and need in the digital age. These are the top eight technological trends that are driving a major shift in the telecom industry.
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5G network
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WiFi 6
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Artificial Intelligence
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Internet of Things
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Big Data
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RPA
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Cloud Computing
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Cyber Security
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Low-code/no-code solutions
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Open APIs and eSIM as-a-Service
These telecom technology trends are changing the landscape of telecom IT and BSS. They're offering new solutions to consumers as well as new opportunities for traditional and non-traditional service providers. These trends will be the foundation of the next generation of customers and the future of brands that follow them.
5G network- The network of Today and Tomorrow
Over 3 billion internet users are located all over the world. These users use smartphones to access the internet. Smartphones are helping people manage their important tasks. Consumers want high-capacity networks that offer faster access to apps and richer services. Wireless broadband and 5G can enable this, which allows 100 times faster data transfer than 4G. It also offers high speed and low latency.
According to a report, connections to 5G networks around the world are expected to reach 1.34billion in 2022. Already, telecoms use 5G applications and IoT devices in order to target specific industry verticals. Telemedicine is being used by the Healthcare sector as a cost-efficient and quick way to deliver diagnoses and treatment to patients and medical staff. The connected car is improvising transportation and infrastructure treatment. As the Covid-19 situation changes, the education sector is embracing e-learning.
Telecoms are expanding in all sectors by automating customers online. Its applications are applicable to many industries, including transport, medicine, agriculture, and public services. The 5G network and all its technologies are coming together to make this telecommunications better.
WiFi 6
WiFi 6 is a WiFi network that has a longer range, provides better performance, and connects more devices. It also allows for faster communication, can improve network capacity, reduce latency, and offer multiple opportunities for cost reduction and increased revenue.
WiFi 6 can be used by telecom operators to develop new ways of optimizing traffic across access networks. It will not only benefit the areas of entertainment, telemedicine, and remote employment but it will also aid regions in which fiber is difficult to reach.
WiFi 6 can be merged with 5G technology to provide stronger signal strength for IoT deployments and support always-on devices. It reduces congestion in high-capacity networks, allowing seamless data transfer between IoT devices.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence developments will be a huge benefit to telecommunication companies. Already, they are using AI technology, such as chatbots and virtual assistants, to offer personalized customer experiences and increase customer satisfaction. It is able to analyze and process a large amount of data quickly without compromising security.
In 2025, 70% of all operators will invest in AI systems to improve infrastructure. Artificial intelligence offers new ways to optimize network maintenance and predictive maintenance as well as customer service costs. It allows operators to prepare customized offers for their customers, both B2C and B2B.
AI can also detect network problems, allow self-healing, and protect networks from fraudulent activities. It helps operators monitor equipment's start and predict failure based on patterns. AI will allow for better root cause analysis in order to effectively address emerging hardware problems.
Internet of Things
The Internet of Things has changed the role of telecom service providers by enabling communication between people, devices, and places. IoT allows the telecom industry to monitor data centers and base stations remotely. This reduces network downtime, improves business processes, and generates more income.
Innovativetelecom software and methods are being developed by the telecom industry to monetize IoT services. These emerging technologies can be used to position them as IoT leaders and offer innovative solutions beyond just network connectivity. CSPs have the ability to explore new opportunities and offer a wide variety of solutions for many industries, including healthcare.
Berg Insight is a specialist IoT analyst firm that predicts that there will be 4.15 trillion IoT devices connected worldwide to cellular networks by 2024. This means huge opportunities for telecom operators. IoT in Home Automation is one of the most promising niches. It provides outstanding mobile and network services to smart homes mobile apps and real-time monitoring systems.
Big Data
IoT allows telecom companies to acquire large amounts of data. This information can be pooled using IoT sensors embedded in mobile devices and apps. They must ensure that their network is able to move large amounts of data efficiently and support new technologies.
The collected data can be used by the telecom industry to gain crucial business insights and understand customer usage patterns. The data can be used to improve customer service experience, evaluate products, and monitor and optimize network performance. Companies can use big data to improve their businesses and increase their competitive edge.
RPA
RPA technology is most widely adopted in the telecommunications industry. It is highly scalable and agile because it can take over repetitive, rule-based tasks such as answering customer queries, tracking prices, or tracking the progress of their completion.
It gives the company the power and tools to manage back-office tasks such as data integrity and security and employee salaries.
This allows employees to focus on more important tasks, build deeper customer relationships, improve operational efficiency, and troubleshoot delays in service delivery to customers.
Cloud Computing
In 2020, the telecom cloud market was valued at $25.33B and is expected to grow to $74.36B by 2026 according to the Mordor Intelligence Report. In the coming years, there will be a huge shift in communication service providers (CSPs), to the cloud.
Many telecom companies rely on large computing infrastructures to provide a wide range of services, manage data, and bill customers. Migration to the cloud decreases the number of computing resources needed and also increases revenue streams.
Pay-per-use services allow telecom companies to offer new services, lower the cost and perform better according to market needs. Telecom industries can adopt cloud technology to improve their efficiency and switch key business functions to the cloud. Single-product telcos can use the cloud to expand their service offerings and reach new markets at the speed of the market, just as Lebara did back in 2014.
Cyber Security
When it comes to cybersecurity, the telecommunications sector is one of the most vulnerable. There are many opportunities for malicious attacks to gain unauthorized access to data of telecom companies with large customer bases.
The consequences of a major telecom provider infrastructure being attacked could have a significant impact on a country, businesses, consumers, government agencies, and even the entire country. This could also have major implications for the reputation and trustworthiness of the telecom brand.
Telecom providers can detect and respond to threats more effectively by adopting a holistic approach like cyber security mesh. Because networks don't have physical borders, the mesh uses a modular approach to security rather than securing one IT perimeter.
Cybersecurity mesh will soon be a standard approach, as it follows the zero-trust network principle. Any connection used to extract data from the network will be deemed unreliable until it is verified by security protocols. The mesh promises that all data systems and equipment will be treated securely and similarly, regardless of where they are located within the network.
Low-code/no-code solutions
What are low-code/no-code solutions?
Telecom companies have had two options in the past when it came to new telecom software solutions. First, you could build the system yourself. This option is more tailored to the needs of the service provider and their business requirements. This can lead to more costs, increased in-house resources, and a longer time for deployment. A provider can also buy a system from an outside vendor. This is usually easier and cheaper for the service provider. Although they can be installed faster, these systems are not customizable. This means that the service provider is less flexible in future changes.
However, there has been a third option that emerged recently, and is one of the most popular tech trends in the telecom industry. Low code/no-code (LC/NC), this telecommunication software development solution makes it easy for companies to quickly design, build, and launch applications. A TechRepublic survey found that almost half of all companies use LC/NC platforms. One in five companies that do not use LC/NC solutions plans to start using them within the next year, according to the same report.
Why is low-code/no code becoming more popular?
This trend is driven by a global shortage in digital transformation skills. These skills range from software development to data analytics and information security. The demand for technical talent is much smaller than the pool, and the Great Resignation only made the problem worse.
In the midst of this talent shortage, there is another stressor: the need to bring technology products to market quicker and more efficiently. These challenges are solved by LC/NC solutions. They make it easier and faster. This technology makes software development more accessible to citizens and business users. It allows them to create and deploy applications in a variety of ways.
The skills gap is likely to persist, which will drive interest in LC/NC solutions. Using LC/NC solutions, telcos can keep up with technological changes and meet digital demand even when they have limited technical resources. As with many automation tools, however, efficiency often comes at the cost of customization.
The best time to use LC/NC in an organization is when it isn't necessary to create software that is unique or doesn't drive significant business value.
Open APIs and eSIM as-a-Service
High barriers have been in place for years to protect incumbent telecom service providers against new competition. The advent of open APIs, the eSIM-as-a-Service model, and other digital solutions is bringing down these barriers. This creates yet another trend within the telecoms industry. This creates an abundance of new business models that offer connectivity-like services. Open APIs programs such as those promoted by TM Forum will lead to more integrated telco-non-telco product portfolios and services portfolios, allowing service providers to leverage their customer relationships to generate incremental revenue.
My recent post discussed the ambition of 5G operators to create income from value-added services through partnerships. This has been a significant increase in comparison to a few years ago. Nearly half of respondents to the survey believed that telecom operators would not earn more than 10% from services provided by third-party partnerships in 2019, just half a year after the launch of commercial 5G services. Two years later, 55% believe that such services will contribute between 10% to 30% of total 5G operator revenues by 2025. Another 23% believe this number will be higher than 30%.
This rise in ambition to generate 3rd-party revenue opportunities is a result of realizing that 5G isn't delivering the revenue growth that telcos had hoped. Telcos are now looking for new revenue streams in order to finance 5G investments. My belief is that the customer relationship is more important than the network to telcos. Telcos can leverage existing relationships to create new sales opportunities by building trust.
To achieve this, telcos need to have a lot of pieces. Not least technical agility and the ability to manage business processes.
Edge computing
Edge computing is one technology that will revolutionize how humans and devices connect to the Internet. IoT devices are generating a lot of data that must be processed in data centers. This is pushing network bandwidth requirements to their limits.
Edge computing aims to bring computing and data storage closer than ever to the place where they are needed, in order to reduce response times and increase bandwidth.
Electronic signature
The highest customer churn rate sector in the market is the telecoms, so documents must be signed on a regular basis. All documentation related to the registration must be signed by the customer throughout its lifecycle. This includes the receipt of a SIM card or adhesion of services. To cancel, the customer must sign the cancellation request along with any other documents.
Telecommunications operators need tools to keep their customers happy and efficient.
Integration of e-signature solutions speeds up customer connection: digital, agile, and paperless onboarding processes give this process added value.
The telecom sector faces many challenges
The human race has reached record levels and in many developed countries, the number of active mobile phones is higher than the population. This trend is paralleled by an increase in home Internet usage, with 60% more lines available in Spain, for example, than 10 years ago.
However, some countries have seen a decline in the sector's economic performance despite an increase in service consumption. Spain has lost 35% of its income over the past ten years. 25% of Spain's employment is now vacant. Returns on Investment are low in some cases, and in others, even negative.
Telecommunication operators must digitally transform their businesses to become more agile and faster in order to reorient the industry. They must create processes that are more efficient, agile, and less problematic if they want to reach the previous levels. They must incorporate digital transformation technology into their processes in order to achieve this. This will allow them to simplify their processes, organizational structures, and systems. They must use intelligence and data internally to be more efficient and effective. It is crucial to provide customers with innovative experiences, and even create new businesses that have a significant impact.
How CIS assists telecom companies with their telecom software solutions to provide the right benefits
Telecommunication companies are increasingly being used by more people to connect them to diverse networks around the world and offer cutting-edge, affordable services. Many telecommunication companies are faced with challenges such as rapid growth, managing large amounts of data, cost control, and increasing business agility.
CIS provides tailored telecom software development solutions to address the challenges that are preventing customers from receiving your services. With our telecom software solutions, we assist telecommunication providers in transforming their operational processes, achieving high organizational growth, and improving the quality of their offerings.
Thus, if you need a product to transform your telecom business experience? Get recommendations based on industry size, and feature requirements using our telecom software development services.