5 Key Drivers of The Telecommunications Industry

Do you have a fascination for predicting what the future has in store for us with technology? Or perhaps you are someone who likes to forecast trends in telecom industry? Better yet, maybe you are someone who simply follows the evolution and advancement of science that helps make our lives easier. If that’s the case, you will want to read this whole blog and interact. If you are someone who does not like reading an analysis of the key factors that shape our future, this blog may not be for you. Because, here we shall discuss the 5 key drivers that are integral to the telecommunication industry. So, shall we?

5G , SDN and NFV

The smartphones of this day and age connect to the Internet by means of cellular networks, in which the areas for which service is provided are called cells. The connectivity requires technology, which has standards. Almost all the phones at present have third and fourth-generation technology standards. You know these as 3G and 4G.

The fifth-generation successor to them, or 5G is a critical key driver of the Telecom industry; specially for its future. With greater bandwidth, higher download speeds up to 10GB per second is promised under this new-tech! And once phones have this tech, they can even compete as internet service providers for laptops and computers. But 5G doesn’t stand alone.

Be it a building or a microchip, an architectural approach is required to enable it to be efficient, effective, and controlled. Networks have a need for a similar approach; and that is where Software Defined Networking (or SDN) comes in.

SDN allows the network to be programmed using software applications, to help operators manage the entire network with consistency regardless of the tech involved. Now, just as building designs are innovated upon, network designs are, too.

Rising Mobile Ecosystem

At present, we find that all our devices and digital machines are interconnected, provided with unique identifiers and are able to transfer data over a network with minimal interaction.

This is essentially the foundation of Internet of Things (or IoT). And the growth of the same is a substantial growth opportunity for the telecom industry in terms of more devices being connected.

In fact, a study by Gartner estimated that there would be 20.4 billion connected devices by 2020. Just imagine the scope of services offered in the process! But as much as the services would expand, so would the aspect of more vulnerabilities in terms of security, fraud, and data leakage. Service providers need certain drivers to be able to identify, predict and even counter said risks. That’s where Artificial Intelligence comes in.

Artificial Intelligence

Robots Or maybe your iPhone’s Siri. These are probably the first few things that come to mind as you hear the word “Artificial Intelligence”. But there is more to this field than just being a simulation and mimicking of human thoughts and actions.

The field of AI evolves, but that also means that amount of data generated is evolving as well. It’s expanding into more and more categories, and in greater quantity. The resulting high data provision from connected devices means greater analytics of customer behaviour for the telecom industry to execute decisions that are far better-informed.

But data analytics are not sufficient by themselves for this. Intelligence is Knowledge, and knowledge in this context means having the ability to identify the patterns and trends that the dataset shows. The easiest way to gain knowledge is through learning; and that’s precisely where Machine Learning comes in.