Telecommunications is one of the most rapidly growing industries in the world. Due to technology advances and breakthroughs, the telecom industry has experienced dramatic changes and is going on to develop and evolve faster than ever before. It’s anticipated that the year 2020 will account for new changes and will bring a great variety of opportunities to the telecommunications industry.
A GSMA report shows that the global telecom industry will grow in size and represent nearly 5.6 billion unique subscribers and 5.8 billion smartphones. The GSMA Association is a trade body that represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide.
Before we jump into the future, let’s have a look at the current telecom trends.
Current Telecommunication Trends
1. 5G
5G refers to 5th generation mobile networks or 5th generation wireless systems, serving as next telecommunications standards beyond the current 4G standards. Network providers are working on making 5G a reality as soon as possible. Google, Uber, and Ford are among companies working in this direction. The first attempts of 5G architecture already exist. 5G networks promise increased speed and efficiency.
2. Value-Added and Over-the-Top Services
There is a constantly growing competition among the players in the field who offer apps and content streaming right through the Internet. With the growth of OTT in 2017, network operators will experience more financial and infrastructure pressure. As a result, telecom companies and other service providers will partner with and turn into primary OTT solution.
3. Fixed Wireless Technology
Companies such as Google, Verizon, and AT&T have already established various mechanisms that can be crucial in coming up with advanced ways, thanks to which wireless technology will work in telecommunication systems.
4. Mergers and Acquisitions
Mergers and acquisitions or consolidation and bundling are among the popular trends of 2019. Many telecom companies are expected to merge so to enlarge the sphere of their services and gain new opportunities.
5. Network Security
In the past few years, many companies witnessed cases of data breaches. One of the cases has to do with Yahoo, where a group of fraudsters gained access to customers’ email accounts. The most recent ransomware, known as WannaCry, attacked desktops and mobile phones in more than 100 countries all over the world. As a result, network providers and operators brought their attention to the importance of having robust protection techniques to make the data transferred more protected.
What to Expect by 2020?
There exist a number of important factors that will bring about major changes in the telecom industry. Below you can find the factors that are going to drive the most change in this regard.
1. Integration
Being connected goes on becoming cheaper. The cost of offering such a service continues to fall. From the aspect of competition, this means the price is getting smaller and smaller. The tendency of being connected is targeting an ever-smaller proportion of the information value chain. As for content, service, and product deliverers, they target ever-more. It’s expected that a content company will acquire one or more leading telecom companies by 2020.
2. Explosion of Connected Devices
Another factor that will drive change in the telecom industry has to do with the Internet of Things. The IoT or Thingification will add billions or even trillions of new connected data sources worldwide by 2020. As a result, there will be an immense increase in data volumes. Users will enter the world of zettabytes.
3. Mobility
The mobile connectivity is growing globally and surpassing hardline connectivity. This is associated with the fact that growth is mostly happening in the developing world and among poorer populations. These people find mobiles more affordable, useful, and convenient to use, even though landline connectivity is an option out there.
4. Saturation
The world will become more and more digitized so to provide increased efficiency. People will use digitized technologies more and more often and consume much more bandwidth than the carriers could expect. As a result, the market will become entirely saturated.
5. Security
Carriers will be fighting the new threats that are arising. Customers will start expecting and then demanding carriers act more proactively so to provide them with a higher level of protection. Carriers will try to meet these expectations by developing various technical and operational innovations.
6. Skynet 2.0
These are space-, balloon-, or drone-based systems that offer high-quality broadband access to anywhere and everywhere around the world. These systems will turn this into a reality without requiring higher expenses.
The ongoing technical transformation and information waves have given birth to changes and accounted for major growth in the telecommunications industry over the past 20 years. Today, there is a new situation created for the industry. Moreover, the situation is going to further change and bring about new changes in the field.
