The telecom industry has experienced various versatile changes in technological advances over the years, which has boosted the industry’s pace over the past decades. In addition, the changes in how the telecom players have embraced technology have helped increase their revenues and streamline their day-to-day operations.
Therefore, there is no doubt that telecom players who want to remain relevant in the industry have to align themselves with appropriate technology that should lead them to optimize their services. According to a report by EY, telecoms will pump in enormous funds to overhaul their infrastructure as they look to align with the digital transformation that is at hand.
Automation has been a critical player in the telecom industry, and it has laid the groundwork for numerous improvements in the efficient operation of the telecom industry. Although automation has always been around in the telecom industry, recent automation developments have been much more significant. This is because they are intertwined with the business intelligence aspect, which has helped telecom industry players become more aware of customer needs and helped the industry players gain more knowledge pertaining to business logic.
Automation in the telecom industry is driven by various factors of concern to the industry players to help them become aware of which technologies and automation processes they should incorporate. Which factors are the drivers of the automation processes being adapted by telecoms?
The Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things is a huge network of hardware, software, and other applications that interact. From connected vehicles, household items like refrigerators to the wearables we possess, the Internet of Things is all around us, transforming the world we live in hugely. This is no different from the world of telecom.
IoT’s continued rise in the telecom industry brings along opportunities to generate new business values and revenues. The opportunities that IoT brings along include
- Opportunities to increase the level of customer satisfaction
- Flexible cloud computing
- New business models
With the above opportunities, there is no doubt that the continued rise of IoT will lead to a strain on telecoms’ infrastructure. This, coupled with the increase of more demand for platforms that act as a bridge between sensors, internet data and modern gadgets and devices, telecoms are devising and embracing automation operating as IoT service providers.
It is estimated that the IoT telecom service is expected to grow from a market value of 4 billion dollars to 23 billion dollars. This estimation, coupled with the increased demand for services like cloud computing, industrial automation and vehicle telematics, is driving the need for automation in the telecom industry greatly.
Need for Data Security and Privacy
The telecom industry is an industry that involves the exchange of vast amounts of data within its infrastructures and platforms. This massive network of interconnections can penetrate many vulnerable points, leading to data and privacy breaches. The need for data protection is skyrocketing exponentially every day since more and more data interaction is increasing daily. It is estimated that the worldwide exchange of data is at 44 zettabytes which is enormous.
This has led to the need for automation of telecoms’ network systems through software-based and defined networks to boost data security. A concept of a distributed system needs to be adopted by telecoms as it is less prone to attack than a centralized system. Telecoms continually improve their infrastructure and networks by integrating automation-based systems such as Artificial Intelligence and machine-to-machine systems that incorporate more responsive and proactive reactions to any sense of data security and privacy breach.
Data-Driven Networks
With the use of Data usage increasing exponentially, telecom consumers are consuming lots of bandwidths of data. Moreover, with more and more corporations adopting digitized platforms for communication and data storage offered by telecoms, it is no doubt that this comes with the challenge of maintaining top-notch optimized services despite colossal data consumption.
This has led telecoms to adapt automation coupled with topnotch technologies such as the 5G network, which has high speeds and low latency. In addition, telecoms are also integrating automation systems using other next-generation technologies to ensure they can match commercial clients’ data consumption demands and high usage personal clients.
Customer Experience
Market experts have touted customer Experience to overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator. Nowadays, many customers are not bothered about paying the requested prices set by telecoms as long as they value their money. Customers expected high-speed bandwidth, strong network quality and the premium customer experience in return for their subscription.
With these ever-increasing customer demands, telecoms have adapted. They are continually adapting technologies such as self-service portals, which go beyond the conventional billing and receipt service to incorporate on-demand service provision. The uptake of automation systems such as Artificial Intelligence-based chatbots and digitized virtual assistants is a move telecoms should make to match consumer experience demands.
To boost the customer experience, telecom service providers have also incorporated end-to-end process changes that have eased their service provisioning response times considerably from more extended service provision times, weekly to hourly or even a few minutes. Technologies such as Network Function Visualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDF) have been utilized to outstanding results by telecoms in helping reduce service provision times.
