Accelerating digital-led recovery to the next normal

Emerging technologies like 5G and Wi-Fi 6 can help service providers evolve into digital value players and emerge as winners in the new economy.

By Sanjay Kaul

The 1990s was perhaps the greatest decade for technological advancement, witnessing the evolution of mobile networks as well as the advent of high-speed internet. Until a few years ago, these technologies were viewed primarily as communication and information tools. But as we’ve seen in the last few months, telecommunication and networking can serve as powerful enablers of human welfare and safety, which I believe will continue to be of the highest priority in the new world post-COVID.

This new world will also give rise to a low-touch/no-touch economy where technology will be essential to everything we do. India was already the fastest digitizing country in the world before the pandemic, but COVID-19 has accelerated this journey by at least a few years. At the same time, the country’s economy has taken a hit in the last few months, prompting many organizations to reimagine their business models and scale their digitization efforts to recover quickly.

Additionally, even though the country is slowly opening up, the preference for digital alternatives that emerged during the crisis will continue to grow. In India, 966 million people, or 68% of the population are expected to be mobile users, and 907 million, or 64% are expected to be connected to the internet by 2023, according to a Cisco report.

In this low-touch economy, service providers will become crucial to helping more people across the nation gain access to mobile banking, m-commerce, m-health, m-education, m-governance services, and in assisting businesses to further their digital transformation. Now, the challenge and the focus will be on streamlining the hurdles of virtual experiences. So, while the digital world holds enormous opportunity for technology and service providers, service providers that can not only bring differentiated technologies, innovation, and new business models but also embrace digitization to transform their own operations will emerge as the winners.

The combined force of 5G and Wi-Fi 6 can support new applications and increased network capacity while connecting more users and devices.

This is where emerging network technologies like 5G and Wi-Fi 6 can help them evolve into digital value players through new revenue streams, reduced costs, and improved operational efficiencies. Most significantly, this will enhance the overall value and experience for end-customers. And though plans for 5G rollout in India seem delayed due to high spectrum costs, and leveraged balance sheets of leading service providers, the pandemic has certainly created the motivation for fast-forwarding deployment. Globally, the fundamental shift has already begun - several service providers around the world are already testing out and launching 5G and preparing for a mass rollout, with APJC in the lead.

Banking on emerging technologies

5G is about more than 5G radio – it is about virtualization, cloudification, digitization, automation/zero-touch, and zero trusts. In essence, the 5G and the Wi-Fi 6 have been built from the same foundation. Therefore, 4.5G, along with Wi-Fi 6, can set a solid foundation for testing the use cases and monetization aspects of 5G in India. Wi-Fi 6 offers advancements in broadcast capacity with access points broadcasting to multiple devices at the same time. It will help businesses drive more value from their present IT infrastructure, allowing them to attain 5G-level performance more affordably. The combined force of 5G and Wi-Fi 6 can support new applications and increased network capacity while connecting more users and devices. This will allow more mission-critical internet of things (IoT) devices to be connected reliably through wireless while also providing enhanced mobile broadband for immersive experiences, thus creating new business models and revenue streams.

While the pandemic has led to unprecedented disruptions, the catalyzed pace of digital transformation has only stimulated innovation and opened up new areas for growth. From IT services companies to technology vendors and startups, everyone is focused on capitalizing on the possibilities of digital transformation. In such a digital-first economy, service providers need to act fast in identifying and building on the value they can deliver.

Service providers are looking at ways to achieve their long-term digital transformation vision while delivering on short-term business value.

Additionally, not all service providers are well-positioned to leverage this opportunity. Many, especially in the Asia Pacific, are confronted with the challenges of competitive pricing and churning out new services. They also need to modernize their network and embrace the latest technologies to improve service guarantees and provide efficient service delivery. Only those service providers that are equipped to offer credible digital value plays will thrive.

With these dynamics in play, service providers are looking at ways to achieve their long-term digital transformation vision while delivering on short-term business value. They realize the benefits of optimal cost and efficiency in deploying automation and orchestration technologies. In addition to these technologies, they are also investing in highly skilled talent, and most importantly, partners to transform their digital vision into a reality. Here, Cisco’s mission to solve our customers’ most pressing challenges converges with the objectives of service providers, to truly bring in a partner-value framework, built on a holistic partnership to enable digital value play and network architecture that is intuitive, service-agile, and secure.

Standing together for a connected future

At Cisco, we are building the future of the internet through technological innovations in silicon capacities, bandwidth scale, density, energy efficiency, software modularity, open architectures, zero-touch, and zero trust networks. This means new possibilities, markets, and revenue streams, but also means numerous complexities and challenges. To navigate the complex world that COVID-19 is shaping, we need to work together.

We are excited to empower our service providers to identify and capitalize on the opportunities that the new normal brings with it – an opportunity that we can’t let go.

The author Sanjay Kaul is the President, Asia Pacific and Japan, Service Provider Business with Cisco Systems, based in Singapore

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