Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2022. Read them in this 14th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
5 Trends Driving Innovation in Telecommunications in 2022
By Jukka
Westhues, Market Insights Director, and Jean Lawrence, Senior Director, Product
Marketing, Oracle Communications
Between the ongoing pandemic, evolving customer expectations, and the growing
war for talent, the telecommunications industry saw its fair share of
challenges in 2021. However, the industry continued to prove its resiliency as
it accelerated 5G rollouts, increased adoption of cloud native and, of course, provided
the connectivity customers rely on. As we look ahead to 2022, here are five
technology trends that will help drive further innovation in the
telecommunications industry.
1. 2022 will usher
in a period of "co-creation" between communications service providers (CSPs)
and partners to imagine and launch industry-specific solutions.
Gone are the lone cowboy days of
CSPs providing the full suite of services to consumers all by themselves. As
the value of pure connectivity becomes commoditized and service providers must
move up the value chain, partnerships and ecosystems are critical to value
creation. Furthermore, the business case for 5G rests on B2B and B2B2X, which
requires a shift from the traditional B2C mindset and into thinking about how
service providers, application developers, hyperscalers and other contributors
can come together to create multi-sided business models.
This co-creation can be fostered in
idea labs. For example, forward-leaning CSPs like Vodafone have launched an
Innovation Factory to drive innovation into new verticals, test early
prototypes with target audiences and assess solutions. They have achieved real results
in areas like vaccine tracking and 5G remote media production. Similarly,
software and cloud providers like Oracle provide Industries Innovations Labs
that welcome thousands of customers and partners to a hands-on simulated space
to explore and accelerate new revenue opportunities based on emerging
technologies across verticals like manufacturing, utilities, government and
hospitality. Co-creation and collaboration will underpin value creation in the
5G economy.
2.
The "Great
Resignation" will drive communications service providers to become ever more
creative in recruiting and retaining top talent in 2022.
In the wake of Covid-19, societal
and workplace upheaval have resulted in what some call The Great Resignation,
with large numbers of employees across industries leaving or changing jobs. The
communications industry, like many others, faces a global shortage of skilled
talent, which is becoming acute as service providers increasingly require
software and architecture skills to capitalize on the digital economy. Industry
innovators are addressing the challenge by initiating college internships and
specialized recruiting programs, offering "returnships" to provide an on-ramp
for employees who have taken a break from employment, and investing in the upskilling
of their existing workforce to meet the needs ahead.
3.
CSPs
will embrace customer-aware charging.
Today
most service providers charge customers for usage based on macro factors like
location and service type. In 2022, they will begin employing customer-aware
charging, where they apply AI algorithms to data about individual customers to
provide highly personalized rates. This involves analyzing customer usage
patterns for specific services like social media, understanding lifetime value,
propensity to churn and location, and combining this with company-specific
objectives around pricing margins to propose personalized charges in real time
that will appeal to the customer. This scenario was recently demonstrated in an
award-winning TM Forum catalyst proof of concept called 5G Chargers. 2022 will also see smarter use of data
in order to increase customer satisfaction and service provider revenue.
4.
2022 will see a
surge of low latency 5G scenarios, such as cloud gaming and VR/AR. We may not
be ready for the Metaverse yet, but these are steps on the journey.
From its origins, 5G held out the
promise of advanced use-cases based on higher scale and extremely low latency.
So far, 5G has mostly been delivering on the basic service of "broader"
broadband. However, that is about to change. With 5G networks and edge-computing
resources being deployed more broadly, service providers and enterprises are
finally able to begin delivering on those original promises.
Cloud gaming and VR/AR use cases will get increased attention as the required
latency will finally be within reach. In fact, a recent Oracle Communications survey found that 93% of service providers plan to launch an
average of three so-called advanced services, gaming among the most popular.
Not only are the networks ready, but monetization and orchestration systems are
rapidly gearing up to support these low latency use cases. We will see more and
more examples of gaming and VR/AR use cases being trialed and rolled out in
2022.
5.
Communications
service providers will increasingly focus on transforming themselves from
"telco to techco" by solving problems with cloud, platforms and automation.
Service providers have come to
realize that the operational and business models of old will not help them
realize the exciting opportunities that lie ahead with 5G. The TM Forum has already been
writing about this. Service providers must adopt a more tech-centric approach
in order for them to be able to deliver the services and applications that
consumers and enterprises will want in the immediate future.
Siloed, closed IT environments do not translate well to the open,
partnership-driven ecosystems that are increasingly required. To compete for
both subscribers and employees, service providers will need to adopt the best
characteristics of open architectures, AI-assisted operations, automation, DevOps,
and the flexibility of cloud infrastructure. Only then will service providers
be able to adapt to rapidly evolving tastes and usage characteristics of
subscribers. The genie is out of the bottle, the transformation has begun and
will only pick steam into 2022 and beyond.
As 5G becomes more mainstream in 2022, CSPs must capitalize
on the moment by exploring new business models and revenue streams. By rethinking
how they operate and embracing new technologies, CSPs will see 5G ROI and expand
their value proposition to customers, employees, partners, and investors.
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jukka Westhues, Markets Insights Director, Oracle Communications
Jukka Westhues is currently the Director of Market Insights at Oracle Communications. He has been working in telecommunications for 21 years, first as a management consultant, then with Nokia and later with Oracle.
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Jean Lawrence, Senior Director of Product Marketing, Oracle Communications
As senior director of product marketing, Jean Lawrence leads the development and execution of strategy, communications, and product launches for Oracle monetization solutions. She helps customers around the world realize the benefits of the digital economy by providing flexible subscription services, strengthening their customer relationships, and achieving recurring revenue streams compliant with financial requirements. In her 21 years of technology and communications industry experience, Jean has held marketing, strategy, and product development leadership positions at Computer Sciences Corporation, Motorola, Alliance Telecom Solutions, and Aerial Communications (now part of T-Mobile). She holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University with concentrations in marketing and strategy, and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Notre Dame.