Telco Developments and Breakthroughs to watch in 2022

Telecom Business Review | Wednesday, August 10, 2022

The future of the telecom business is drastically different from even three years ago, making telco trends for 2022 much more essential.

FREMONT, CA: In 2021, there was a considerable increase in the global deployment of 5G networks. However, there are numerous more developments that promise to make 2022 significant in the telco sector.

Convergence of wired/wireless and IT/telecommunications

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Today, CSP networks are primarily compartmentalized. Wireless subscribers are supplied by various OSS systems, authentication techniques, databases, and different access, transport, and core domains. Most worldwide CSPs still do not offer fixed mobile convergence (FMC) packages, despite almost half having fixed and mobile assets.

Converging networks and systems across wireline, wireless, and Private Enterprise 5G networks will provide streamlined and simplified operations, unified service delivery, cost reductions, and chances for new applications across all access types.

Concurrently, the convergence of IT and Telco Clouds is a rising trend that leverages shared cloud resources for all workloads to optimize and reuse data center investments, minimize operating costs, promote elasticity, and enable on-demand resources. Adopting Hybrid Cloud to leverage Public Cloud for hosting the 5G cloud is another development that delivers OPEX-based consumption model advantages.

A growing emphasis on 5G Advanced

5G 3GPP Rel-17 is completing construction and will be released in 2022. The emphasis will shift to Rel-18, which will set 5G Advanced specifications, perhaps by the end of 2023 or 2024. 5G-Advanced is a development of 5G New Radio (NR) and 5G Core that paves the way for 6G.

The anticipated additions will bring new capabilities to support advanced applications such as Web 3.0-powered Extended Reality technologies, drone control, autonomous self-driving, and cloud gaming. Uplink coverage, beamforming, edge computing, IoT optimization, and non-terrestrial networks are anticipated to experience significant performance improvements.

In addition, CSPs can anticipate operational benefits from data analytics with Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning (AI/ML), slicing improvements, traffic splitting/steering, and the achievement of improved network energy efficiency.

Human augmentation of network operations assurance

The use of analytics and AI/ML to transform data (from networks, devices, consumers, services, social media, and more) into meaningful business insights and advantages will increase in 2022. CSP operations are becoming data-centric. It's the only way for CSPs to become truly customer-centric.

Such real-time consumer knowledge enables CSPs to conduct dynamic and targeted marketing efforts, augment and automate customer service, and deliver intelligent operations based on the anticipated customer effect. Eliminating organizational and domain silos by interconnecting systems and eliminating manual processes that slow down CSPs is crucial. Immediate insights direct actions to safeguard and enhance the customer experience for operational workers. Numerous operations will be automated for instantaneous reaction; clients will not wait till the analysis is compiled.

In the near future, technology will be able to report network events not just when they occur but also in advance. In addition to recommending operational tasks, assistants will display the outcomes of automatically completed actions.

Automated insights that increase CSP revenue

With 5G rollouts speeding and billions more devices being connected, network size and complexity will rise rapidly as CSPs focus on new vertical sectors such as manufacturing, logistics, and more. That implies significantly more information.

Thanks to advancements in computing power, cloud storage, and analytics, there has never been a moment when so much data could be analyzed. Automation will provide insights drawn from data at a lower price and with greater precision than ever. AI/ML is a critical tool for enhancing productivity and network stability, as well as for enabling CSPs to offer new and improved client engagements that will generate revenue and defend market share from rivals.

Expect an increase in the number of new services enabled by AI/ML and automation. Mobility analytics provides insights into travel patterns, service utilization, and behavioral analysis. CSPs will provide services to enhance urban planning, transportation efficiency, driving safety, public safety, and industrial output. Furthermore, this is merely touching the surface of the possibilities.

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