The Future of Telecommunication:Advances in the technology of telecommunications have proved an unambiguous threat to totalitarian regimes everywhere.

The future of telecommunications

Over the last decade, telecommunication operators have created an unprecedented economic and social impact. By covering nearly, the entire world with infrastructure that enables data connectivity, telcos have facilitated massive productivity increases and enabled everyone to connect, work, play, learn, and socialize. It allowed the growth of digital champions that changed our everyday lives and contributed to the rise of digital businesses like Uber, YouTube, TikTok, etc. Despite its paramount role in transforming the world, the industry has been challenged with digital disruption (e.g., VOIP, instant messaging), and it was not able to capture the value that it created in the digital world and remained largely an infrastructure operator. As customer expectations radically shift towards personalized omnichannel experiences, this represents an opportunity for telcos to move from being a means of electric communication to embracing the era of digital transformation to accommodate these rising demands.?

The vision is that Telco or Telco alliances could become global technological champions, which comprises expanding services beyond connectivity, focusing on providing users with a seamless digital experience. The shift is known as the move from Telco to TechCo.?

5G is here

2023 witnessed the widespread adoption of 5G technology, revolutionizing the telecommunications landscape. More than just a faster 4G, it can enhance the digital customer experience with its fast speed, quality, and ease of use. From machines and objects to devices, it can connect virtually everything. With significantly faster speeds and lower latency, it is ideal for applications needing high bandwidth or real-time communication, along with facilitating advanced services like Metaverse.?

Telecom companies are making efforts to provide immersive experiences. It will be even more critical with the next generation of connectivity, 6G. Metaverse has the potential to influence various facets of businesses, like enhanced customer experience and marketing. The telecom sector will play a vital role as fast and secure connections will serve as the foundation of the expansion. The advanced internet connectivity also offers the capacity to accommodate many devices, making it a perfect fit for the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem.

Internet of Things

The IoT is another significant trend in the telecom sector, which will gain pace with the 5G. It is a network of physical devices connected to the internet, enabling communication among smart home applications and wearable gadgets. The telecom industry is positioned well to deliver IoT infrastructure, which provides a superior end-to-end customer experience.?

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to play an essential role in the future of the telecom industry. Its features, like predicting the patterns of human behavior, and enabling operations and customer interactions, can enhance the user experience by facilitating a more efficient resolution of hardware defects or customer issues that may impact it. AI can detect network issues, undertake self-repairs, safeguard networks from fraudulent activity and automate tasks, improve decision-making, and provide personalized service.?

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In addition, the recent rapid rise of Generative AI (e.g., GPT or similar models) enables intelligent and hyper-automated bots to transform the way we experience & perform different services. Therefore, the applications powered by cloud computing technologies in the telecom industry would give rise to more chatbots and visual assistants. The sector is moving towards a virtual network, and the transition to the cloud among communication service providers is also significant.?

Conversational Everything?

With the rise of Instant messaging (e.g., WhatsApp, but also RCS that goes through Telcos) and advanced functionalities within instant messaging channels, there is now the opportunity to offer rich experiences to the users through these channels, similar to what happened with WeChat in China. Examples include anything from conversational marketing, conversational commerce, and conversational support, where users can complete business tasks by chatting in their favorite channel. There are numerous examples of this trend, but in one of the more advanced cases, we recently partnered with Uber to enable customers to order Uber through WhatsApp in India.?

Cloud and EDGE

As Telcos build more complex applications for their customers on the front end, there is a need to increase and offer cloud and edge capability at the core. With this, many telcos are partnering with Cloud providers to transform their own platform, i.e., consolidating data centers and offering a single cloud platform to internal and external users through a safe and compliant Telco-mediated cloud, enabling everyone to have a quicker path to monetization of services mentioned above.?

Outlook: Telco transformation will come through digital investment in least-developed countries

As the world moves towards advanced digital technologies, using them for developing economies and bridging the digital divide is essential. The future of telecommunications can only be imagined with its benefits reaching the least developed countries. This is why this year’s World Telecommunication Day theme is empowering the least developed countries.???

An interesting example of tapping the potential in the least developed countries is Bangladesh. With the push towards digital inclusion, the country is set to grow at a?CAGR of 9%?in the next five years. It is experiencing rapid growth as it strives to achieve its “Vision 2041”, for which the government recognizes the internet and digital technologies’ significance as crucial tools. Actually, the least developed countries are places where the transition from Telco to TechCo could happen at a much faster pace.?

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