Viewpoint
If you could look into a crystal ball and view the future of the telecommunications industry in 2022 and beyond, what might you see? Our experts at Comarch have some ideas – as they have applied their in-depth knowledge and industry expertise to predict key developments in telco in the coming year.
One key area in which advances are expected is that of customer experience and care. In the business to consumer (B2C) sector, artificial intelligence (AI) will help telcos monitor and get to know their customers better. The results should be quickly apparent in terms of higher satisfaction among customers who perceive that they are treated not only as individuals, but also as unique and valued. In business to business (B2B), we can also expect changes. Enterprise portals and the Internet of Things (IoT) will give new capabilities to non-telco sectors that rely on telecommunications for their operations, bringing best practices from telco-retail partnerships into play.
Of course, 5G will continue to have a major and expanding influence on everything that telcos do in terms of products and services. Advances in automation and autonomy, driven by 5G, will impact the entire telecommunications landscape – from autonomous network management and maintenance to optimization of factories transitioning to Industry 4.0.
Network as a service models are expected to take off, as operators seek to monetize their investment in physical and virtual 5G infrastructure by cashing in on private networks and network slicing. In the area of field service management (FSM), the greatest advances will come about thanks to the transformative power of AI and machine learning (ML). Every part of the FSM sector – from zero-touch provisioning and planning to a new generation of predictive and preventive maintenance will benefit as these technologies drive automation and optimize processes across the board.
In addition, it looks like 2022 will truly be the year of Open RAN, eSIM technology, and the more widespread deployment of low Earth orbit satellites to make lower-cost, higher quality Internet connections possible in almost every part of the globe.
