An independent news platform Telecoms.com has recently published its Annual Industry Survey 2019, with the main focus being on topics such as industry updates, 5G rollout, digital transformation, the Internet of Things (IoT), as well as the modernization of Operations Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS). The survey, covering the industry landscape over the last 12 months and projecting into 2020, has revealed an optimistic forecast that is mainly supported by the launch of 5G commercial services, innovations and progress in other important areas of the industry.
According to the report, the single biggest change in the industry landscape over the past year was the deployment of commercial 5G services in different parts of the world. Regardless of the fact that the best-selling service is high-speed Internet access (mobile and fixed), B2B services,
including 5G serving other vertical industries, will undoubtedly play a much more significant role in the near future.
Scott Bicheno, Editorial Director of Telecoms.com, said, “The waiting for the commercial launch of 5G finally came to an end this year. Hardly a day would pass without us reporting some kind of 5G news, either new technology breakthrough or new business initiatives. Improved performance of many telecom companies including operators has also helped improve the mood of the industry, so have the exciting continuous innovations both on the technology and business fronts.”
“The success of 5G, including end-to-end network slicing, mandates a unified view across layers and domains, built upon understanding network and service topology and relevance to customers and devices,” said Dr. Konstantinos Stavropoulos, Solution Marketing Lead, EXFO. “5G mandates actionable insights and intelligent automation to detect and resolve or to predict and prevent customer- and device-impacting issues in real time.”
Furthermore, the survey indicates that the respondents strongly agree that telecom companies must undergo a major overhaul in order to fully utilize the potential of new technologies, mainly because the old business model that focuses on the provision of connectivity is losing value. As for IoT, where connectivity is only a small part of the entire value chain, telecom operators expect and are expected to play a much more important role in the ecosystem.
“The 2019 survey highlights that IoT investments are well advanced today with the majority of respondents having already started to introduce services, and smart cities, utilities and industrial/manufacturing topping the list of prospective verticals,” said Ann Hatchell, CMO of Incognito Software. “Achieving excellent IoT service quality coupled with operational efficiency is clearly top of mind for CSPs and IoT providers.”
According to the survey, 88 percent of respondents believe that the industry should continue investing in 4G, despite the rapidly growing global rollout of 5G services. The respondents also said that budget alone will not guarantee the success of digital transformation, but the lack of funds can be a deal breaker. Overall, more than half of the respondents see 2019 as a good year, and three quarters believe that 2020 will be better.
