In the year 2020, because of the lockdowns caused due the COVID 19 pandemic, there was a huge
impact on the telecom industry. There was an increase in the mobile data consumption, voice traffic and
residential broadband. Many initiatives were taken and many operational changes were made to make
the customer experience seamless and easy. The telecom companies will continue to launch new products and services that will benefit the users, they will experiment with new business models and improve the network experience to stay profitable in this post-pandemic world. It is believed that the telecom industry will be transformed by a number of disruptive technologies in 2021. These disruptive technologies will make many of the current industry trends obsolete and make way for new trends. Here are a few trends that will shape the telecom industry in 2021.
OpenRAN Network
The radio access network (RAN) will be replaced by OpenRAN. This architecture will enable the network
operators to implement 4G and 5G networks by simply integrating vendor neutral software and
hardware components.
5G
Many other countries have implemented the 5G network already by late 2020. In the year 2021, the
telecom companies will start implementing 5G network gradually. The ultrafast speed and ultralow
latency of the 5G network will transform the user experience.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning-
The 5G networks will act as a medium that will drive the integration of Artificial Intelligence and
Machine Learning. These next generation wireless networks will leverage AI and ML to forecast end-user
distribution, they will be able to predict peak traffic and also enhance the network capability. AI and ML
will create new opportunities for the telecom industries to boost network experience.
Next Generation IoT-
The pandemic of COVID-19 caused many disruptions in every industry. This has made the industries to
make investments in the IoT. The 5G network and its ultrafast speed and ultralow latency will boost IoT
by making connected devices exchange real-time data almost instantly. In the post-pandemic world, the
demand for home and industrial IoT devices will increase consistently.
Smart Cities
With the boost in IoT and enabling of the 5G network, many policymakers and city leaders will incline
towards setting up smart cities. These smart cities will completely rely on the telecom networks to manage their services, assets, and many other resources in the most efficient manner. They will also be
able to get actionable insights from a large amount of real-time data.
