Your Business Reinvention is Calling: The New Telecom Industry

Your Business Reinvention is Calling: The New Telecom Industry Reading Time: 3 minutes

The telecom industry has been significantly disrupted. Its traditional business model, consisting of text messaging and phone calls, along with fixed, bundled services, has transformed dramatically. High-value customers desire an omnichannel experience, and the demand for faster data service at a lower price is creating new market opportunities for communication service providers (CSPs). 

To gain a competitive edge, CSPs need to provide unique capabilities for their customers: focusing on security, privacy, and application integration at lower costs. TIBCO’s Connected Intelligence for Telecommunication can help telcos move away from traditional legacy systems and operations with digital reinvention and smarter analytics.

The Next Phase of 5G

Telecommunication providers are expected to constantly update their network infrastructure to meet the demands of data-intensive applications and increased traffic. The 4G launch of 2012 catalyzed the adoption of data services, but the model failed to generate profitability. According to Business Wire, between 2012 and 2018, 4G subscriptions grew from four percent to 61 percent globally, but service revenue increased by less than one percent. 

Consumers expect better service, improved connectivity, and more data at the same cost, meaning CSPs are spending money to keep up with infrastructure without gaining any back. With the current rise of 5G networks, telecoms face intense competitive pressure to make the 5G investment while keeping costs low for consumers. Adding to infrastructure challenges are the continued regulatory pressures about data privacy.

Worldwide revenue for telecom and PayTV services reached $1.55 trillion in 2020, declining 1.4 percent year-over-year. Among the global regions, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) saw the biggest drop in revenue, declining from $479 billion in 2019 to $469 billion in 2020, according to an IDC Report. 

Consumers expect better service, improved connectivity, and more data at the same cost, meaning CSPs are spending money to keep up with infrastructure without gaining any back. Click To Tweet

Digital Reinvention for Telecoms

To overcome falling revenues, infrastructure updates, and ever-evolving customer demands, CSPs can focus on three areas to speed digital reinvention: 

1. Extend the infrastructure to accommodate emergent business scenarios 

With a focus on becoming a marketplace for business solutions, CSPs can create a digital environment where businesses can interact without regulatory barriers. Building market-making capabilities will not only drive businesses to invest but will allow for capabilities like the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality. Telecoms can focus on seamless interoperability and integration for the strongest impact.

2. Improve the current partnership with customers 

Digitally transformed CSPs can provide customers with personal and omnichannel experiences. Leading with a 360-degree view of customers will unify data silos for long-term customer gains. With this technology, the telecom business can create personalized experiences across the customer journey to increase customer engagement and satisfaction.

3. Extend services offered and value delivered 

By evolving back-end technology into a platform for launching new business models, CSPs can transform into digital service providers (DSPs) to provide self-directed, zero-touch services, and personalized offers to boost lifetime customer value.

Becoming a DSP requires more than just adding APIs. Telecoms can consider cloud-native packaging to support digital self-services. TIBCO’s Connected Intelligence Platform enables API-led innovation and agility and enterprise-scale security to protect sensitive assets. In addition to connecting consumers with third-party services through APIs, telecoms can enhance digital customer experiences with a unified data platform. 

Smart Analytics Build New Revenue Streams 

Currently, advanced analytics requires highly skilled, well compensated manpower from integration to analysis. However, the next step for analytics will be automation and advanced algorithms to make analysis faster, cheaper, and less dependent on a workforce. 

Telecoms can join these trends by becoming platforms for cheap computing and system integration. They can create new revenue streams by helping companies gain data-driven insights in real-time without manual integration or data processing. 

To do this, telecoms need a powerful analytics platform. TIBCO’s Connected Intelligence Platform offers immersive visual analytics to support multiple layers of disparate data, analytics apps, real-time analytics, and geo-analytics. The platform covers single-functional, multi-functional, and cross-functional domains to provide complete, real-time insights into consumer interactions with the network. 

The Future is Calling

Data-as-a-Service saw a rapid rise in 2020 after the pandemic’s initial lockdown. According to Statista, the beginning of March 2020 saw an increase of 18 percent in home data usage compared to the same period in 2019. Zoom usage increased 67 percent in Q1 2020, and businesses expect video conferencing will continue to be popular long after quarantines are lifted.

For communication service providers looking to change their consumer offerings and go-to-market strategies, this year is a great time to transform into a digital service provider and leave behind legacy systems and falling profits.

To learn more about becoming a digital service provider, check out this whitepaper about the challenges and solutions for creating service-based network architecture.