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The telecom sector is no stranger to disruption. After all, it’s been at the forefront of many of the greatest trends and developments in the modern world, from the birth of the Internet to cloud computing and smartphones.
No matter where technology goes, one thing is clear: the telecom industry will continue to provide the connectivity needed to support the innovative new technologies of tomorrow.
So, what trends are driving telecom forward and what does the current landscape look like? More importantly, what lessons can we learn from the past to better understand what the future of telecom will look like?
We’re going to answer all of these questions and more in this post.
There are many trends defining the future of telecom as we know it. We’ve put together a quick list of the top ones you need to know about, including:
Beyond trends lies opportunity. Our White Label Softphone offers a tailored approach to navigating this dynamic telecom environment. Curious about the possibilities? Let’s discuss how it fits your unique needs—book a demo today.
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Currently, the telecommunications industry is defined by several key trends.
One trend that appears to be growing increasingly common in the telecom space is a shift from fully-owned cellular towers to rentals and revenue sharing.
To offset the cost of telecommunications infrastructure, providers are increasingly seeking to either rent their infrastructure out to other companies or else simply do away with ownership entirely.
Consequently, we’ve seen the emergence of a new kind of service provider — one that purchases infrastructure to then lease to telcos.
Just one year remains before the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) officially reaches end-of-life in the United States.
Technologies that rely on the old copper wires of the PSN will need to transition to digital alternatives such as VoIP, 5G, or low-power Wide Area Networks (LP-WAN). In the short term, this switch-off has proved challenging.
In the long term, however, transitioning to cellular and wireless connectivity will be incredibly advantageous for telecom providers.
Not only will they be less reliant on physical infrastructure, digital technology allows them to both improve service delivery and enrich service offerings while also reducing overhead. This is in addition to enabling the utilization of other emerging technology such as AI.
The increasing reliability and bandwidth of satellite communications coupled with the promise of an eventual transition from 5G to 6G promises to even further reduce our need for physical network connectivity.
In the near future, this could potentially even lead to truly global internet coverage. Provided, of course, we can get past the regulatory hurdles:
To put it bluntly, the regulations around satellite network connectivity are extremely complex. They also vary from country to country, which presents a significant roadblock to telecom providers. Moreover, these regulations are constantly changing — so even keeping pace can be difficult.
Rather than centralizing data processing and computing workloads in massive, costly data centers, we are increasingly seeing businesses across multiple industries shifting to a more decentralized model.
Computing is increasingly being handled at the network’s edge, simultaneously increasing bandwidth and reducing latency. In addition to unlocking a number of new use cases and reducing network traffic, edge computing gives organizations greater control over their data.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, analyst McKinsey found in a recent survey of telecom executives that the majority of them are actively engaging with edge computing on some level.
We’ve already touched on the enormous impact artificial intelligence has had; on the technology’s potential. But what does that look like for the telecommunications sector, exactly? The short answer is that it changes everything.
Using AI, telecommunications companies can deploy intelligent, self-healing networks capable of mitigating everything from outages to cyberattacks without human intervention.
These networks can leverage advanced algorithms to ensure optimal traffic flows and even proactively prepare for surges in demand. Chatbots built on large language models, meanwhile, can greatly enhance the customer service experience while reducing helpdesk workloads.
Here’s the truth: the telecommunications sector is in a state of flux, evolving in ways that few could have predicted several years ago. How are telecom providers adapting to this new paradigm?
More importantly, how has this impacted the competitive landscape?
For one, potential deregulation, global connectivity, and reduced reliance on expensive physical infrastructure has opened the door to startups which, just a few years ago, would have been unable to compete with the major players in the space.
Case in point: There are over 2800 telecommunications startups globally. Some of the most compelling include:
For their part, telecom leaders are embracing digital transformation, using technologies like robotic process automation, AI, and IoT to enhance everything from equipment maintenance to customer analytics.
In the process, they’re greatly improving both accessibility and service quality for consumers.
For much of its early existence, telecommunications was a relatively niche industry. Not only was telecom technology cost-prohibitive, its use cases were still limited. That changed dramatically in the 1980s, which saw the introduction not only of mobile telephony, but also the first standards for email.
What followed was a period of rapid technological evolution which ultimately culminated in a convergence between communications and computing.
During this time, mobile network operators thrived, providing millions of users with access to increasingly globalized infrastructure. At the same time, this early boom was not without its regulatory growing pains.
Policymakers and regulators expressed several concerns, many of which are still relevant to this day:
These stumbling points did little to stem the growth of the telecom industry, and by the early nineties, the first commercial cellular radio systems were fully established.
That was not the only thing that would change in the coming decade. The ensuing years saw another explosion of technological development, this time focused on data.
Although the telecom landscape changed relatively little throughout the 1990s, the infrastructure supporting it evolved considerably.
Telecommunication network technology had already been undergoing a slow transition with the expansion of switching and transmission facilities. The development of more advanced computing technology helped to accelerate this growth.
Network-wide intelligence sharing was a particularly noteworthy development, considerably amplifying network performance and simplifying network management.
New technologies such as synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), meanwhile, greatly expanded the scope of services that telecom companies could offer. This coincided with global convergence of computing, telecom, broadcasting, and entertainment companies as well as the establishment of global networking standards.
By this point, Microsoft’s Bill Gates could already see the writing on the wall.
“People will not have to think about moving their information around,” Gates explained at a Telecom 99 keynote, adding, “Any files or favorites or messages that they are interested in should just immediately show up wherever they are, whether it is the television that will be connected to the Internet, their mobile phone, their computer in their car, or their PC in all its various forms. In order to make this happen, we are completely dependent on forming strong partnerships with telecommunication.”
By 2003, worldwide mobile phone subscriptions had reached one billion worldwide, reaching 4.6 billion by the end of 2009.
Internet use similarly exploded, reaching 1.8 billion in the same timeframe, with half of that number having broadband access. This timeframe also saw the first introduction of satellite services as a means of complementing optical fiber and broadband networks as well as the introduction of new wireless standards.
By 2010, telecommunications had essentially permeated every facet of modern life. Smartphones, cloud software, and the development of new, faster, and more efficient mobile like LTE, 4G, and 5G also contributed heavily to industry growth.
Much has already been written about how the coronavirus pandemic changed the world. About how we saw over a decade of technological development in just a few months.
About how, in a future defined by hybrid and distributed work, telecommunications networks are more important than ever.
Artificial intelligence introduced even further disruption, with generative AI enabling better network optimization, customer service, and more.
At Acrobits, we’ve always been innovators, from the moment we developed the first mobile VoIP application on the App Store and Google Play in 2009. To date, we’ve helped more than 600 communication service providers generate hundreds of millions in revenue for their clients through our solutions.
More importantly, as a proven leader in the industry, we make a point of staying abreast of emerging technology and trends — and ensuring that our clients have everything they need to embrace those trends.
Book a demo today, and we’ll show you what we mean.
Create a custom white-label softphone with Cloud Softphone.
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The telecom sector is no stranger to disruption. After all, it’s been at the forefront of many of the greatest trends and developments in the modern world, from the birth of the Internet to cloud computing and smartphones. No matter where technology goes, one thing is clear: the telecom industry will continue to provide the […]
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