What To Watch Out For in 2018

It was not long back when we were talking about artificial intelligence gaining precedence, brain-storming over IoT or data driven operations. And Blink! It’s almost 2018. Here we are again at the crossway of time, comprehending the way ahead. We spoke to the experts and adjudged the trends that are about to sweep the market in the upcoming year. Let’s have a look at these:

1. Security and Privacy

Security has been and will be an integral aspect of any technological advancement and the telecom sector is no exception. Mobile applications that demand detailed personal information or financial transactions made over your phone – your every interaction is monitored. In a recent case from Arkansas, an Amazon Echo device set up in a home played a major role in police investigation of a murdered man. The devices have proved to be capable of eavesdropping every conversation at your home. With cloud storage gaining more and more prominence, it is imperative for the telcos to focus upon operational security measures to protect customer’s digital footprint. According to Deloitte, the DDoS attacks are the most feared currently with about 10 million attacks expected by the end of the year 2017. See image below.

2. 5G

Brooklyn witnessed the 4th annual 5G Summit earlier in 2017 organised by Nokia and NYU Wireless. Tat the event, the industry experts defined a clearer future for 5G networks and have confirmed that the first phase of standards-based 5G deployments is underway. The expectations are huge and with the massive MIMO, millimeter waves, small cells, & beamforming being included in the 5G networks, we can imagine the scale of technological R&D 5G will require. Here’s hoping that the coming year will officially be a paving stone for the 5G era.

3. Cryptocurrencies

The next in list, cryptocurrencies have long been discussed as a fad or trend and amidst the discussion, they are still going places. Major fluctuations in the pricing of major cryptocurrencies, rise in the number of new currencies and promotion of cashless payments are the scenarios that only strengthen the usage of these new-age currencies further.

4. Analytics and Research

There was a time when Google Analytics was the undisputed leader and hardly had any other tool that could be called a competition. However, the times have changed and an entire new market has come up, catering to the advanced requirement of data gathering and comprehending this massive data. With Salesforce, Watson, Tableau and similar tools there are a plethora of options to collect data as well as interpret it in different formats.

5. Further propagation of IoT

IoT has gained prominence for some time now and most of the new devices are being built keeping IoT in mind. This momentum is expected to grow further with more devices coming into the IoT domain. Major players like Amazon, Google, Cisco, IBM have been outplaying each other with technological achievements. We have to admit that IoT is here to stay and benefit us with constant innovation.

6. Automation

Automation has been a hot favourite across the industries and telecom is not left out. Imagine having a platform that automates the process of routing, route validating, financing, and ticket resolution hence eliminating any chances of discrepancy caused due to manual intervention. BridgeVoice Pluto is one such Automated Carrier Platform developed by Bankai Group that allows wholesale VoIP service providers and carriers to do business from anywhere in the world. The platform helps the customers to connect, bid, and offer high-end VoIP termination services to their customers.
For the telecom industry the road is tough but as they say when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. With high-level technological advancements taking place at such pace, it is challenging for the telecom operators to be the market leaders technologically while retaining their customers and revenue growth. Being futuristic is the demand of any technologically dependant industry currently. The multitude of mobile applications, digital technologies and innovative phone designs have together led to a revolution which has a long way to go.