The Near Future Of Telecom

Technology is crucial to the telecom industry and it continuously changes, disrupts, and moulds consumer behaviour, marketing, and products on the market. By looking into the changing landscape and analyzing the early signs that are coming from the intersection of culture, business and technology, we found 3 emerging opportunity areas for telecommunication providers: Beyond Talk and how communication habits are changing, Provide Value to the lives of your customers & Connected Everything and the rise of the Internet of Things.

1. Beyond Talk

The rapidly changing technology is fundamentally shifting the way people communicate. Smartphones are no longer used for calling and teens are posting online questions on how to remove “the phone app.” Communicating expands beyond just a phone call— to an Instagram post, a silent video, Snapchat group exchange or a short text.

Implications for Telecommunication providers:

• The “new language” of young people is text-based, highly visual and instantaneous.
• The primary smartphone usage is not talk-based anymore.

2. Provide Value

With the smartphones so deeply ingrained in our daily lives, customers receive more advertising spam than ever before— in that noise the messages become indistinguishable. Brands should look beyond solely broadcasting a message as an interruption, towards marketing as a service, by using available means to add real value to the lives of customers.

Implications for Telecommunication providers:

• Customers will ignore brands that deliver just messages rather than action.
• The only way brands can cut through the communication clutter is to add real value and utility to the lives of customers.

3. Connected Everything

The Internet of Things is growing at a breathtaking pace, with the majority of consumers expecting to have it in their homes by 2019. As complex technologies become available for mainstream consumers, anyone will be able to build and connect their own specific set of smart devices. These changes will dramatically alter the way people use data, connect and interact with their devices.

Implications for Telecommunication providers:

• Smartphones represent only a fraction of the “smart” and “connected” items.
• The ubiquity of connected items requires much more data and new tariff plans.

The Near Future of Telecom report analyses the weak signals from the intersection of consumer behavior, new technologies and business dynamics, and summarizes the implications and opportunities for telecom providers.

Below you can explore our full report with accompanying trends, insights and signs, followed by actionable implications which are included in a hands-on framework.