Communication Service Providers Cannot Remain Static - Hilary Maine, Nokia

By Hilary Maine, VP CX Strategy & Technology, Nokia

Communication services have never been more critical or more vulnerable. In the first weeks of lockdown, most communication service providers experienced a year’s worth of traffic growth in just a few weeks. The global pandemic has prompted a new normal of network demands. In the US, pre-pandemic, 17% of employees worked from home five days per week or more. That number now stands at 44% which means that thousands of employers are dependent on the quality and reliability of telecommunications infrastructure.

Traffic patterns have changed as well, impacted by videoconferencing, streaming and gaming. With millions visiting family and friends, and conducting business over video every day, the upstream bandwidth on networks has increased on average 30-35% and demand for reliable home broadband has exploded. Waves of lockdown, bursts of unemployment and disruption of traditional education have accelerated the consumption of streaming video and online games, which were already growing fast.

At the same time, cybercrime is exploding. The FBI reported a 300% increase in cybersecurity complaints just in the first three months of lockdown. The DDoS attacks too are growing at around 25% per year, creating terabit traffic storms.

All of this puts pressure on communication service providers who typically operate on thin margins and have to continually introduce new services to compete while maintaining legacy services to support existing customers or devices, such as elevator alarm mechanisms.

Fortunately, the IT and telecom industries have been coming together to develop more efficient and service rich networks, leveraging cloud to enable elasticity and resilience of services, and introducing architectures that support rapid innovation via ecosystems. With the introduction of 5G, the industry is enabling operators to deliver up to 100 times the capacity they deliver today; to provide greater security, and to reduce power consumption per bit. By leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) built into network elements, service providers can become more proactive and predictive.

Wireless and fiber networks are the heartbeat of a connected community because they link the layers of physical devices and systems, data, and sensing to make a connected community possible. Communication service providers cannot remain static, simply providing the pipes for information that moves from cool smart devices to even cooler smarter devices. Rather, they should be pursuing what is called a smart enabler strategy, using their telecommunications assets to promote innovation, integrate industry ecosystems, and foster change in consumer behavior and tap the enterprise connectivity and use case potential. Communication service providers are in a strong position to execute this growth play. Although a smart enabler strategy will require new skills, we see it as a natural progression of what communication service providers do best: pioneer connectivity.

We all hope that we will never experience another pandemic, but with the ongoing strengthening of our network infrastructures, we can certainly be better prepared. Pursuing a smart enabler strategy is an exciting opportunity. There is enough evidence to suggest that smart enablers are the wave of the future. Communication service providers that successfully pursue this strategy will benefit from distinct competitive assets and exploit their connectivity strengths to remain at the epicenter of the complex yet promising ecosystem.