Our expectations of communications service providers (CSPs) are unrecognisable in comparison to what they were a few years ago. Before, all we wanted was reliable connectivity; but now, we are constantly looking for enhanced ways to consume content and interact online. And bringing the workplace to the home has added a new layer of importance to these services, as we seek providers that can support our work life alongside our home life, writes Andrew Walker, the global communications & media industry lead at Accenture.
The past two years have shown us just how important telecommunications are to modern life and CSPs are finally getting the recognition they deserve. We continue to live through a period of flux and transformation, and as a result there are many more opportunities for growth and development amongst CSPs.
Here are three ways the telecoms industry will continue to surprise and delight customers in the 2020s:
5G will go one step further in solving society’s problems
5G has arrived on the latest handsets, but we haven’t yet seen enough compelling evidence that this new technology is going to have a significant impact on our lives. To consumers, cellular network upgrades are starting to feel like small, incremental improvements, not worth the extra investment but that will all change when we see more real-life examples of 5G and how it underpins the way we live and work.
At home, superfast wireless is supporting the shift to remote work and enable sustainability in a totally new way by helping to make us more connected and productive. For small and medium businesses, it is creating new opportunities to engage customers through digital platforms, while for enterprise companies, it is enabling remote monitoring in industries like manufacturing, oil, gas and mining environments, saving time and protecting worker safety.
In hospitals, healthcare professionals will get access to greater monitoring capabilities to improve patient care. All of this means greater efficiency, but also less strain on workers themselves.
In the year ahead, we will see more 5G use cases come to life, inspiring even more individuals and organisations to use its capabilities to solve societal challenges from sustainability to safety and security, as well as the opportunity to close the digital divide.
Metaverse environments will make room for more innovation
Virtual worlds are already well established. We are more connected virtually than ever before, and every single day, people put their headsets on and play games, talk and interact for hours on end with people all around the world. Clearly, the demand is there for people to find new connections beyond the physical world, and it seems increasingly clear that 2022 will be the year big tech makes an extended push toward these environments in new ways.
These virtual worlds will get even richer and more interconnected creating an unending need for secure, reliable, fast connectivity. CSPs will need to build out rapidly to capture share as these new applications and universes are created, to both continue to be the trusted partner, as well as to avoid inviting competitors into their territories who deploy new highspeed networks faster and who disrupt the market.
Engineers, developers, creators, policymakers and CSP are planning to come together to build metaverses. We can expect to see this level of industry collaboration and cooperation unlocking significant innovation and encouraging a crosspollination of ideas helping to take virtual experiences to the next level. As the connectivity bridge into these worlds, CSPs will be crucial.
How AI and analytics will transform the human experience
In recent years, CSPs have been shifting to the cloud and investing in artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics which is critical to providing a better customer, partner and employee experience. In 2022, more CSPs will be focused on transforming the employee experience.
The ‘great resignation’ is impacting all sectors, and in a candidate’s job market employers need to think about how they can make roles as attractive and rewarding as possible. CSPs need to show employees how their role can evolve, which could mean digitising manual tallying and mechanical activities.
As with 5G, carefully integrated technologies will bring greater efficiencies to businesses that go beyond productive performance and into employee support and collaboration. Less time spent on menial, time-consuming tasks should result in more engaging work, and consequently happier and more productive employees.
This will ultimately mean these workers are better equipped to deliver an enhanced customer experience too. The past two years have uncovered a lot about how people want to work and how they’d like to communicate and CSPs have kept pace.
2022 will be another year of great transition, but one in which the possibilities will expand beyond what seemed possible just a short time ago. Now that the industry has everyone’s attention, it’s time to showcase what’s possible.
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