7 Telecom Trends to Watch Out for in 2021

With every year that passes, the leaps forward that the telecom industry makes are dynamic, and rapidly rising, evolving radically since the invention of the phone toward the end of the 19th century. From the manual exchange to electromechanical automatic exchanges, it further developed to analogue electronic exchanges and presently to digital exchanges. Even with voice conferences, multiple features have come in toward smoother and efficient calls, at different performances and purposes. 

Of course, the sector has been put to the test in dealing with COVID-19, as it became integral to communication needs in the course of prolonged social isolations. Organizations have increasingly relied upon connectivity as employees worked remotely. Students, too, learn from homes and remote locations. Businesses and digital outlets also faced an unprecedented demand for products and services. It therefore becomes integral to know what are the trends lying ahead for the industry to grow and flourish from.

5G

Thanks to remote working and digital collaboration tools, the dependence on phones and smart devices necessitates a network superhighway. To address this rising demand, leading handset manufacturers of the world, such as Apple, Samsung, and Xiaomi are prepping 5G-ready phones, with companies like Qualcomm set to introduce the technology to users at affordable rates.

The fifth generation mobile network (known more commonly as 5G) promises a new era of ultra-high-speed wireless communications. In simple terms, you have a new kind of network that is faster than ever before, and designed to connect virtually everyone and everything together; including machines, objects, and devices.

IoT and Integration to smart devices

It already has been a growing trend even in the past decade. Yet Internet of Things, has been pushed as one of the most significant trends in the telecom industry, which took off in ways no one had expected this year. From industrial automation to AI robots IoT has a spectra of applications. You are also using IoT when you, say, ask Alexa to find a recipe, or Siri to send a message.

IoT interconnects multiple devices and endpoints including smartphones, TVs, fridges, doors, and whatnot over a network. This level of connectivity across places and devices proves crucial for both business operations and residential purposes, especially in the current situation. 

Demand for new IoT applications will continue to surge, especially with location-based and remote services. Forecasts show approx. 30 billion connected IoT devices globally by 2021. This will also be integral concerning fields such as smart cities.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI has helped multiple businesses endure the worst of COVID-induced disruptions. Companies are investing heavily in AI as it is helping form a smart and much-needed layer within the telecom industry. One example of this are the online chatbots that drive human-like conversations for customer service.

This is just the beginning. AI’s rapidly evolved as a must-have tool for increasing telecommunication efficiency and customer satisfaction; the quintessential goal of every business. 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.

Self-Organizing Networks 

In layman’s terms, a Self-Organizing Network is a mobile network solution that automates complex operations such as network configuration and optimization, so as to enhance its performance. It is designed to self-plan, self-configure, self-manage, self-diagnose, and self-troubleshoot network errors via automated configurations.

An increasing demand for higher bandwidth, along with rising mobile data loads have demanded its adoption worldwide. This particular technology is now becoming critical for running mobile networks and will create a demand for more sophisticated applications soon.

Augmented Reality (AR)

In certain e-stores, you’d have already checked out the ability to try on a new shirt or product simply with your camera on, without having to physically try or feel it. This is the remarkable field of Augmented Reality, or AR. This trend is fast becoming a key component for numerous devices and services due to its ability to fetch relevant information instantly. Time is Money. Lesser time means lesser money required, and therein speedy redressals. As a result, customer service becomes further enhanced, and  will lead to businesses benefitting with higher productivity and better revenues.

Cloud Expansion

Even early on, cloud has been an up and coming tech field. As much as it reduces the burden of infrastructure, it also introduces speed to various processes. A combination of public and private clouds, or say, a multi-cloud offering is the need of the hour. Connected clouds serve a plethora of evolving needs such as storage, security, networking, app deployment, and so forth.

Value-added Services

The telecom industry, as with other industries, is under immense pressure from all factors under the Political, Economical, Social and Technological spectrum. Several start-ups move past these pressures by innovating with existing and newer forms of communication service to create optimal solutions with better connectivity.

One such is MultiCall, which provides an effective group calling solution by bridging Voice Over Internet Protocol’s benefits of Scalability and Installation Costs, with the existing PSTN’s benefit of reliability. The end of result such methods is the ability to execute operations that are foreseeable, efficient and agile, with lesser risks, and greater returns on the initial investments in such tech.

There’s a principle of accounting that says “The future is uncertain”. This is something to be borne in mind not just in the context of the current pandemic and the ongoing impact it has worldwide. It also is to be borne in terms of that customer expectations and demands that follow as a result. The bright future promised in telecom industry belongs to those who can provide the solutions to meet such demands in keeping with the key drivers above.