Overhauling Telecom Industry amidst COVID-19

The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world with its rapid spread and death tolls that are surging with each passing day. Nations across the globe are left with nothing but to isolate their citizens through mandatory lockdowns to curb the spread. With people staying at home, the pandemic has impacted the global economy, trade, and industries across the world in unprecedented ways. Further, to accommodate with the COVID-19 pandemic the world has changed the way it lives, works and connects and has impacted every industry globally. productivity

The Upward Trajectory

Telecommunication is one of the few industries with a silver lining. With people even more so utilizing telecommunication services and data usage for any sort of communication with the outer world, the impact of COVID-19 has amplified the value of telecom in day-to-day functioning. With physical distancing implemented across nations, telecom operators worldwide are reporting traffic increases of up to 20–70% during the daytime, driven by increased use of videoconferencing, video, cloud-based ICT services and collaboration tools like Direct Inward Dialing or DID.
Lockdowns have also led to an immense increase in the data usage across the globe. As per a preliminary data from Forbes, as millions of people go online for entertainment and more, total internet hits have surged by between 50% and 70%.
Digital media consumption through social media, online gaming, and OTT video streaming platforms are peaking too as more people were homebound. The world is contemporarily struggling to adjust with the ‘new normal’ and while coping with these changes, telecom has worked as one of the biggest supports across industries. The ‘new normal’ involves remote working, online learning and social distancing, while businesses have switched to digital spaces to stay in touch with their customers and clients. Digital is proving to be the need of the hour and according to a survey from EY, most organizations believe more and more of their budget will be allocated towards creating a robust digital presence.

4 Ways Communication Service Providers have aided Economies in COVID-19 Crisis

• With physical distancing in place, telecom companies have responded with a sense of urgency and empathy and has assured that families and communities stay connected whilst businesses and educational institutions continue functioning too.
• Pillar for healthcare and government agencies by equipping field hospitals in the U.K. with high speed connectivity and devices.
• Have provided insight on population movement to tackle the spread of the virus in the U.S., Asia and the E.U., connecting citizens to vital information.
• Lastly, telecom companies have provided national healthcare institutions with the tools to work remotely and securely as they research treatments for COVID-19.

Challenges for Telecom Operators during COVID-19 Pandemic

Despite the sharp increase in the consumption, telecom operators cannot overlook the possible increase in fraud in data usage. Deploying an efficient fraud management solution is essential to stay on top of the abnormal usage, trends, behaviors, anomalies and patterns. This involves the solution employing latest technologies like Artificial Intelligence and Business Intelligence in order to protect the telecom networks.

Predicting the Future

With more and more people choosing to stay connected and switching to digital modes, it will be a challenge for the telcos to cater to the requirements of this massive user base. However, telcos can utilize this time to get a first-hand experience of handling dynamic network traffic management. The enterprises on the other hand will focus upon developing evolved technologies to facilitate work from home. The future will also give rise to see new use cases involving robotics, smart biometrics and AI. The existing developments, for instance 5G, however, might undergo delayed delivery affecting the revenues of the companies.

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The crisis is destined to bring out some innovations in the telecom industry while acting as a catalyst for several solution innovations. The pandemic has established that telecoms retail and service channel strategies can be invocated, as customers, as well as telecom employees, processes and systems, can work better digitally than one could have imagined before the crisis.