What really has telecom technology paced-up in 2023
The next 12 months look set to be a bumpy year for many global markets, and communications service providers (CSPs) will not be entirely insulated from the volatility. To offset this, businesses are looking to step up innovation and digital transformation.
In the telecommunications sector, there are a number of stand-out technologies and trends that will increasingly be leveraged to boost customer experience, network and business resilience, and value propositions. Here, I highlight those that I feel will make the biggest impact in 2023 – the ones that no telco operator or CSP can afford to include.
Lately, it will become more important than ever that network operators take all appropriate steps to secure themselves from both cyber-attacks and turbulent market conditions. Although covering both bases requires different technologies and tactics, both are equally important when it comes to ensuring that a business is truly robust and ready to face up to the future. From a security point of view, the biggest threats have traditionally been seen to come from three factors; hackers and thieves looking to expose data that can be sold on or used to compromise a business, corporate espionage, and a lack of awareness among employees of basic security measures such as safe use of passwords and prevention of phishing attacks.
As telcos provide the “backbone” infrastructure that enables other digital services – from movie streaming to corporate email networks – to function, they are often highly attractive targets for those with less-than-pure intentions. As such, they are under extreme pressure to ensure that there are no exposed "back doors" thanks to the implementation of internet of things (IoT) architecture, uneducated users, or third-party partners. Understanding and mitigating these threats will be a core task for telecom operators in 2023.
Telecom service providers will continue to see the benefits of moving critical IT infrastructure into the cloud – public, private and hybrid – rather than activating more private data centers. In 2023, telcos will harness the cloud in order to create scalability by building services that can be ramped up when demand increases and scaled back when outside factors – such as cost-of-living or supply chain disruption – dictate that business will slow down. It also means that new services can be bought to market quickly and trialed to assess customer uptake without incurring huge losses due to infrastructure expenses if they are not immediately hugely popular. This will be increasingly useful as the race to monetize 5G services gathers pace, and CSPs will differentiate themselves by how quickly and efficiently they can put tools that make this possible into their customers' hands. This year, we saw major players such as AT&T, Vodaphone, and Telefonica announce new deals with cloud providers to handle their data processing operations. In the coming year, we can expect this to expand as telcos build services to enable 5G and edge computing services through cloud platforms.
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