4 trends in the telecom industry

In the modern world, data is everywhere – and we’re sending it to one another in unprecedented quantities. This trend is being driven largely by technological improvements: sites like RS Components have increased the availability and the wide spread use of these highly technical components. And these devices help to shape the methods through which we consume online content.

This, as you might imagine, confers major implications. Let’s look at four of the most significant.

5G is here

Perhaps the most eye-catching development of 2019 is the emergence of the long-awaited 5G. The new infrastructure will bring with it vast improvements in bandwidth, and accordingly vast reductions in latency. This is set to open the door for heavily-automated businesses, as well as those dependent on IoT devices. The most marketable application of 5G for the home user is probably augmented reality, but the technology will also make more familiar tasks like ordering a cab or checking a train time that much quicker and smoother.

Encryption

Data privacy and security has already transitioned from a niche concern into a mainstream one, with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation accelerating this process across the economy. The growing popularity of VPN services like Nord and ExpressVPN indicates a demand for protection that’s unlikely to go away.

Last year, DNS specialists Efficient IP issues a report which suggested a rise of 49% in the cost of DNS attacks. According to the authors, this translates to a loss of more than a million dollars for one in five businesses. The recent scandal around Huawei illustrates how a perceived lack of security can lead to more general negative publicity.

Pay TV branching into telecoms

Increasingly, we consumers prefer to watch our video content on demand. Video streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime have been growing for several years – while audiences for traditional television are dwindling. In response, television providers are rushing to provide their own streaming services – you might consider the BBC’s iPlayer and Channel 4’s More4. The pressure also comes from the other direction, with communications providers like BT finding their way into the media market. 

2019 looks set to see a continued blurring of the line between the two industries. While the ‘OTT’ services are unlikely to make traditional media obsolete in the near future, we should expect to see steps in that direction.

Telecoms branching into banking

While we still carry around debit and credit cards, this duty is already being taken up by mobile phone applications. Services like Paypal have been around for decades, but it’s only now that the technology is available to let one carry around a digital wallet on one’s phone. As you might expect, younger people are more likely to own a wallet of this sort than older people, and so we should expect demographic pressures to make this market more appealing a time goes by. Worldpay’s 2018 Global Payment Report indicates that mobile payments will have overtaken cash in a few year’s time (and likely debit cards a few years after that).  Thus, the telecoms industry will be able to gain a slice of millions of small transactions every day – as well as the highly lucrative data that goes with it.