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5 “New-Age” Digital Solutions that Could Occupy the Thoughts of Telecom Leaders

The digital revolution, driven by high-speed internet connectivity and a plethora of software products and services has become the backbone of social, economic, and technological prosperity today. Communication systems are evolving. As the technology landscape matures and provides more robust solutions to help enterprises and businesses navigate a complex, dynamic, and competitive business world, new and creative business models, products, and services are emerging to fulfil consumer demands.

The telecom sector has a pivotal role to play in this dynamic new age.
Here is a look at five new-age digital solutions that telecom leaders should care about

CPaaS and telecom

The CPaaS market has been on an incremental and steady rise. The demand for cloud communications expanded use cases and prompted new suppliers to enter the market. CPaaS, or Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS), allows organizations to cherry-pick real-time communications features, such as voice, video, and messaging, and embed them into business apps and services. This delivery model allows organizations to customize their communication stack and allows employees to communicate with each other and with customers on a platform and device they want.

CPaaS is cloud-based and software-driven and allows application developers and product owners to tap into and leverage digital and mobile features without having to build or locate any of the expensive physical network infrastructures.

While API providers and network owners are riding the CPaaS wave, it is time for telecom providers to identify how to cash in as well. Telecom providers often do not partner with CPaaS developers since they offer few APIs. The process infrastructure also tends to increase the time-to-market.

However, telecom leaders have the opportunity to get a share of the CPaaS pie since they have access to mass telephony. The cost and routing control, the database of phone numbers, and SIP or traditional switch infrastructure can be put to use to deliver a value proposition for CPaaS.

That apart, telecom companies can extend their services to a wider range of sectors such as entertainment, gaming, fintech, social media, etc. to advance their projects that blend video, voice, text, data analysis, and interactive communications and help deliver better feature-rich services.

IoT

Forecasts estimate that there will be more than 50 billion connected IoT devices in use across the globe by 2030. The greatest advantage that the telecom companies have is that of the infrastructure that exists with mobile phone towers and internet cables infrastructure serving the groundwork for creating new solutions and services based on 5G and IoT.

The IoT market is also expected to reach $381.16 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 24% as IoT use cases and industry adoption continues to increase rapidly. Apart from the use of IoT in home automation where the role of the telecom providers becomes that of providing exceptional mobile and network connectivity, there are significant opportunities for telecom companies to leverage in industries such as manufacturing, security, agriculture, logistics, smart cities, etc. that run on IoT.

Especially as 5G arrives, there will be a need for IoT specialists to help telecom companies implement the technology into existing infrastructure and business processes. Some telecom companies might need to build their own IoT platforms that aid the development of custom products and services to meet customer needs.

Telecom can not only help organizations adopt IoT to drive better outcomes but can develop IoT-linked products and services. IoT connectivity services and data storage and management are the usual suspects of where telecom providers come into the picture. Telcos can also provide better data and analytics from IoT-generated data and help businesses extract valuable insights from raw metrics.

Telecom leaders can drive real-time asset monitoring by employing extended communications networks in conjunction with cloud computing to collect signals from embedded devices and deliver them to the industry-tailored applications.

By adding IoT to their offering mix, telecom leaders can increase revenues by offering IoT services and solutions, retaining clients, and attracting new ones.

Edge Computing

Edge computing is gradually becoming a mainstay in the digital solutions toolbox especially as 5G explodes onto the scene. Analysts reveal that almost 75% of enterprise-generated data is expected to be created and processed outside the cloud or the traditional data centre by 2025. Most cloud computing giants such as AWS and Google are not ready for operating in massively distributed and remote edge environments.

The need to run edge computing at a massively distributed scale and the increasing reliance on the cloud to enable remote/hybrid work has accelerated the race to 5G adoption. With edge computing coming into the picture, telecom leaders have a greater chance for market dominance. This is because the hyperscale data centre advantage demonstrated by public cloud providers becomes irrelevant at the edge even though the uniform software stack advantage persists.

With 5G, organizations can distribute workloads to run at the Edge and reshape cloud computing and user experiences. 5G offers increased distribution, greater network speed and reliability, and the capability to provide new experiences because of reduced latency. These experiences will be powered by applications running on the network edge in contrast to running in the cloud.

For telcos, this means accelerating their move from a hardware-driven appliance model into a software-defined architecture and developing the capabilities and taking advantage of open-source technologies like Kubernetes as a potential foundation for 5G deployment. Delivering higher performance, lower latency, distributed scale, and stringent SLAs will become essential for telecoms as 5G and Edge become the next cloud disrupters.

Rich Communication Service (RCS)

RCS or Rich Communication Service is now emerging as the successor of SMS services. RCS is a feature-rich messaging service that allows organizations to create richer conversations with their customers. RCS delivers the eye-catching function of OOT applications and also leverages the unbeatable reach of SMS.

WhileRCS is not going to replace OTT applications, native messaging based on RCS is the next evolution of operator-led SMS and will play a big role in the new messaging environment. Customers are also ready to embrace RCS with some major brands already leveraging RCS heavily.

Telecom leaders have to work towards providing fully interoperable, RCS-based cross-operator advanced messaging platforms and develop the right partnerships with aggregators, and connectivity service providers to ride the RCS boom.

AR and VR

AR and VR are attracting a lot of attention today as these technologies are in the next stage of delivering new value propositions. They are now moving out of the realm of gaming and finding real-world applications across industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, worker safety, and compliance, aviation, oil, and gas, etc.

Telecom providers can dip their toes in the AR and VR pool since they are an essential part of the ecosystem. They help with the discovery and delivery segment and help subscribers find differentiated AR experiences.

While telecom companies do not stand great monetization opportunities directly from AR presently, they can leverage AR to drive better operational excellence with improved network inspection/maintenance, repairs, inventory management, workforce training, customer service, etc. using AR-based remote assistance.

Interestingly, the rise of digital solutions and the pursuant push towards digital transformation also demands a convergence between IT and telecom. Whether it is IoT, CPaaS, Edge computing, RCS, or the use of immersive technologies such as AR and VR, the telecom sector has a role to play as the enabler of everything.

2022 Priorities for telecom leaders

Over the past few years, telcos have come under pressure to identify new modes to add value to customers as traditional value pools deplete. This year, the telecom industry is geared to face new challenges and opportunities as the technological, regulatory, and competitive environments continue to evolve and change.

While augmenting network capacity by enabling wireless and fibre deployments to fulfil the demand for high-speed networks, telecom providers will also have to enhance the customer experience to remain relevant in this increasingly competitive market.

Some of the priorities for telecom providers in 2022 are:

Enhance customer experience

Industry surveys reveal that 56% of telecom operators rank enhancing customer experience as one of their top priorities for 2022. Research shows that 82% of telecom consumers would consider alternatives if they experience a poor customer journey. 27% of them would abandon the purchasing process entirely.

Telecom providers thus must identify ways to create more viable alternatives to deliver high-quality communication and internet services and identify opportunities to make new service and bundled service offerings.

Telecom players will have to identify how to redefine their interaction models and offer more Uber-like online experiences and also assess how they can leverage technologies such as AI, ML, Big Data, and analytics to redefine service delivery and enhance value capture models.

They also have to identify ways to continuously add value by streamlining new offerings to match an evolving voice market and support their customers with new models and technologies.

Adopting the managed services model

In 2022, telecom players will grow in their role of being business enablers. As the pandemic continues to influence the way people live and work, telecom players will have to identify ways to enable customer success by delivering end-to-end managed services.

Comprehensive managed services such as switch partitioning, geographically distributed switches with redundant connections to the Internet providers become important capabilities. That apart, burstable bandwidth and switch port usage flexibility, and the capacity to manage billing, accounting, credit monitoring, deal management, market management, dispute management, fraud control and usage alert, traffic report, and various other services are other essential capabilities to develop.

Routing optimization drives RoI

Telecom players have to look at optimizing revenues and plugging leaks to improve business outcomes. Establishing cost-efficient traffic routes, optimizing operations by efficiently routing voice traffic will be critical contributors of the same. Technologies such as AI and ML will emerge as enablers with deep analytics facilitating improved decision making.

Telecom players will have to leverage comprehensive technology solutions to make intelligent routing decisions and ensure improved call quality and the best rates. We cannot ignore the role of enabling technologies like AI and ML to drive greater efficiency for voice traffic and maximize the ROI.

Eliminating friction

Telecom players will have to eliminate friction from all customer and user interactions to accelerate growth. They have to gear up to support evolving customer needs and deliver elevated user experiences by providing world-class service.

Leveraging technologies such as API’s telecom players can integrate voice calling within applications and enable their clients to receive and control calls across global locations.

Telecom players have to also identify ways to build their virtual presence with geographically specific numbers and capably service their customers.

Rich Communication Messaging will need to rise

Telcom players will also have to enable businesses to upgrade from SMS to RCS especially as feature-rich messaging assumes the role of a new business driver. Much like proprietary messaging applications, RCS offers some rich features and allows compelling media exchanges. RCS is all geared to disrupt the world of business messaging by delivering a more compelling messaging experience.

The coming of 5G is further aiding the adoption of RCS messaging with 67.44% of online consumers located across Australia, Brazil, China, South Africa, the UK, and the US stating that they were already using a telco-based rich messaging service or would like to do so in the near future.

Telecom providers thus have to look at ways of upgrading their ecosystem by developing the right partnerships with aggregators, connectivity service providers and meeting the market demand for RCS.

Plug revenue leaks

As with every year, this year too, telecom players have to look for ways to plug revenue leaks and improve revenue opportunities by identifying new business opportunities, increasing their customer base, and improving brand recognition. Recent research shows that between 2020 -2024 telecom operators could be looking at revenue leaks amounting to an approximate $37.1 billion, or an annual average leakage of $7.69 billion to grey route traffic.

Adding new-age technology solutions powered by intelligent technologies such as AI thus become increasingly important for telecom providers. Plugging in big-data analytics with traditional messaging firewalls helps telcos identify fraudulent patterns faster. Implementing blocking rules will also become essential to reduce the time between fraud and fraud detection and improve the overall security posture.

Deploying deploy anti-fraud capabilities including data analytics, and 24/7 monitoring, reporting, and alerting also become crucial capabilities for telecom players this year.

In Conclusion

The international wholesale voice traffic is expected to exceed 1 trillion minutes by 2027. Along with VoIP networks, this is likely to fuel international wholesale voice carrier industry demand. While telecom players must capably fuel the growing demand for voice termination services and international roaming with the proliferation of the LTE network, they need to identify ways to amplify their network and infrastructure to enable new services, drive customer satisfaction, and capture new markets by stimulating market demands. Let us help you on your modernization journey to take on the new challenges of the new marketplace!

How can Africa’s telecom players become mobile money winners?

Research shows that much of the population in Africa has limited access to financial services. As incomes in the continent rise, that has meant that it’s become one of the most attractive places for banking opportunities.

Mobile money has been on the increase in this continent with deployments increasing 39% annually in the past decade. Both transaction volume and the value of mobile money have also witnessed double-digit growth. Some of the reasons for the growth of mobile money can be attributed to a lack of formal savings or credit, something that is prevalent in emerging markets as well as the rise of the telecom sector.

That apart, non-participation in the formal economy owing to social and economic reasons also pushes the population towards digital finance. The pandemic further accelerated the pace of digital/ mobile money adoption especially as African governments made it easier to leverage mobile money by reducing the barriers to sign up. In Rwanda, for example, mobile money transactions increased fivefold during a lockdown as governments eased regulations and reduced/waived transaction fees. In Malawi, 2019 IMF statistics reveal that fewer than 170 of every 1,000 adults have deposits in a bank account, whereas nearly 600 have a mobile money account.

The mobile money boom presents tremendous opportunities to telecom players to leverage the burgeoning market. Research also shows banks looking to partner with telcos to add value to their portfolio of services and grab a share of the mobile money boom. Mobile money is making financial services more accessible without the dependencies on traditional infrastructure.

As Africa becomes the world’s hottest place for mobile money, here are a few things for telecom operators to consider:

Keeping security top of the mind

Telcos have to keep security top of their mind to drive mobile money acceptance and adoption. Ensuring secure transactions by enabling next-gen impenetrable, robust, and resilient SMS firewalls will play a crucial role to ensure secure transactions since authentication messages and OTP’s are sent through these messages.

That apart, they need to ensure that no revenue leaks and illegal traffic flow through their routes. Identifying and blocking grey route traffic will assume paramount importance to prevent fraud, block illegal traffic and increase customer reliance on their services. Technologies such as Real-time monitoring, System-level filtering, and Intelligent SMS Firewall Rules will be of immense help to overcome the grey route and security challenge for telecom operators.

Friction-less customer experiences

To emerge as mobile money winners, telecom operators have to ensure that they deliver a frictionless payments experience to their customers. Whether it is the security of transactions or the ease of setting up digital identities, telecom operators have to look at ways to improve customer experience by identifying customer pain points and challenges.

Enabling facilities such as eKYC to simplify the verification process, make it more accurate and seamless not only enhances the authentication process but also makes the process more secure. Technologies such as AI and Machine Learning can further help in optimizing the KYC process and simplify identity and document verification.

Elevating network security

Network security is essential for telecom operators to win the mobile money wars in the African continent. With the promise of 5G on the horizon and technologies such as AI and IoT becoming commonplace, telecom operators have to make sure that the network connection and endpoints are secured appropriately.

While legacy networks will struggle to meet the modern-day network security requirements, looking at network virtualization and other strategies such as network slicing, more detailed and individual authentication processes, and technologies that identify changes and anomalies in traffic or behaviour patterns become important areas to consider.

Update the technology stack

One of the challenges that telcos need to navigate in Africa is that of the unavailability of skills in modern technology and a heavy reliance on ageing technology. Inadequate IT infrastructure and insufficient skills and experience with modern-day telecom tech can impact the pace of growth when telcos want to increase their portfolio and cash in on the mobile money trend.

Updating the technology stack to drive better security, ensuring end-point security, developing applications that are robust, fast, thoroughly tested, and optimized for speed and security, network infrastructure security and zero-trust application security architectures can help telcos expand their capabilities to increase their service portfolio.

These considerations apart, telecom players will also have to navigate the challenge of SIM jacking, SMS phishing, and SMA Spoofing to prevent information manipulation. Enabling proactive route testing, home routing and rerouting capabilities come in handy here.

Analysing the information exchanged between two parties to identify discrepancies proactively also becomes important for ensuring secure transactions. AI-ML-based voice firewalls, features such as global tile blocking, legal interception, blocking messages based on system-level filtering, intelligent SMS firewall rules, map operation codes, Live GUI, and CDR for analysis, etc are other ways to ensure greater security to prevent fraud and unhappy customers.

Currently, there are about 100 million active mobile financial services customers across Africa. The total MFS opportunity in this market is close to $2.1 billion or approximately two per cent of total African banking revenue pools. While banks identify ways to increase their footprint and get a share of this pie, telcos already have a large number of unbanked people on their networks. The ones to win the mobile money game will be those who can roll out the right products according to customer needs more securely. Telcos have already got one piece of the puzzle sorted. They can win the latter with advanced and cutting-edge telecom solutions with ease.

Focusing on operator readiness for next-gen messaging

The world of business messaging has evolved greatly. A2P messaging is seeing steady growth and enterprises are recognizing immense value from strategically adding SMS to their omnichannel strategies. This growth in A2P messaging has also offered MNO’s compelling growth opportunities as volumes and applications grow. OTT messaging apps have also gained traction, especially in the enterprise communication market. While OTT messaging platforms are steadily integrating into enterprise omnichannel strategies, challenges associated with rolling them out on a global scale, limited reliability and privacy concerns have discouraged enterprises from leveraging this medium to exchange critical and sensitive information.

Given the universal applicability, A2P messaging will continue to be a part of the enterprise messaging strategy. MNO’s however have to now gear up to enable next-gen messaging services such as RCS or Rich Communication Services, M2M communication etc. to meet with the enterprise needs to enable next-gen messaging.

The growth of next-gen messaging

By enabling RCS messaging, MNOs will be able to deploy an enhanced native messaging experience for their enterprise customers (and their end customers!). RSC messaging promises to deliver an elevated and seamless experience using personal and interactive messaging and rich media to drive customer engagement. While OTT platforms offer elevated messaging experiences, mobile operators provide ubiquity, reliability, and trust thereby making them more suitable to the enterprise narrative.

That apart, there is also an incremental incline in the usage of M2M (Machine to Machine), communication. Technologies such as Big Data and AI are working in M2M to improve customer experiences by ensuring maximum speed and deliverability. M2M messaging also makes it easier to schedule bulk message delivery and helps businesses stay top of the mind of their customers. Applications are also growing in the context of enterprise automation and autonomous actions driven by M2M capabilities.

5G is also poised to become a mainstay in the mobile mix sooner rather than later. While 5G promises to enable the interconnected world and make business messaging even more personalized and effective, it also opens up the surface area of cyber-attacks demanding greater and more airtight cybersecurity standards.

Given the forces of change and evolving market dynamics at work, focusing on operator readiness will assume paramount importance to enable next-gen messaging. A few of the things MNOs have to evaluate are:

Capacity to address the grey route challenge

Revenue leakage due to grey routes will lead to a cumulative loss of $37.1 billion, or an annual average leakage of $7.69 billion between 2020- 2024. Next-gen messaging is attractive to MNOs because it comes with the promise of greater profits thereby placing paramount importance on addressing the grey route challenge.

While mobile operators are proactively trying to address this issue and thereby securing messaging revenues, fraudsters and non-compliant SMS aggregators are working hard to identify loopholes and other methods to deliver SMS’. Advanced firewall solutions and integrating traditional firewalls with big data and advanced analytics can assuage this problem by identifying fraudulent patterns faster and hence become imperative capabilities to develop to enable next-gen messaging.

Building zero trust networks

With M2M communication coming into the messaging mix coupled with the rise of 5G, operator readiness also involves establishing zero trust networks to keep the network safe from malicious intent and activity.

Aligning 5G specifications with zero-trust tenets helps in establishing a zero-trust architecture. A zero-trust architecture ensures secure network access to resources (data, devices, and services) and provides access to only the authorized and approved subjects ((users, devices, and services).

Securing digital identities, and the communication transport and of user and signalling data across 3GPP interfaces, along with designing the right security posture of network assets contribute towards creating a zero-trust architecture.

Plug leaks and increase monetization opportunities

The mobile playing field is only set to become more competitive with next-gen messaging entering the channel and services mix. Mobile operators have to develop their capabilities to deliver differentiated and more personalized experiences while identifying monetizing opportunities. While doing so, they also need to ensure that there is no revenue slipping through the cracks.

Operators thus have to employ the right anti-fraud solutions to actively monitor and block fraud and SPAM. Intelligent AI and ML-based firewall solutions become critical enablers of 360-degree network protection of messaging traffic. Such intelligent solutions protect subscribers against fraud by proactively monitoring security breaches with contextual analysis to block fraudulent messages.

The added advantage of using intelligent solutions is the access to advanced analytics that provide insights into usage and consumption patterns and help MNO’s identify revenue-generating opportunities and gaps.

In Conclusion

As next-gen messaging evolves, the focus has to be on improving the security posture. Concerns on network security, grey routes, SIM jacking, and SIM phishing have to be addressed and there has to be an increased focus on data security. Mobile operators will have to develop their capabilities to proactively deal with security threats that are increasing in scope and complexity. Partnering with experienced telecom solutions providers to access robust solutions that improve monetization and performance will become inevitable to enable next-gen messaging services. Let us help you get ready for the next-gen of messaging solutions.

Is Pricing The Achilles Heel Of SMS?

Any marketing leader for a consumer brand would agree that today one of their most successful customer approach channels for conversion is SMS. With an open rate of 98%, SMSs, are still among the most trusted sources of information that sparks customer interest worldwide.

The worldwide trend in digital adoption has seen traditional incumbents being massively disrupted or even displaced from their very existence by new-age startups that have sought to leverage technology to beat customer expectations. Another scenario we have seen is the poor fate of protectionist policies against digital alternatives in industries like music and software. For years, brands tried to chase down online portals and channels with labels of piracy, but for every website or illegal channel they tried to curb, thousands more sprang up in a matter of days. Ultimately, the leaders in these segments realized that rather than try to fix the rest of the world, their pricing and business models were the inspiration of such a huge illegal market booming.

The solution to the problem arrived when the music and software industry took to the cloud and came out with their streaming avatars. Today the SaaS, music streaming, and OTT industry are worth trillions of dollars worldwide. This business model innovation has enabled billions of consumers to access services that they would have never been able to afford earlier owing to large upfront license or ownership costs.

Businesses moved into a consumption-based subscription model of pricing that spreads their revenue generation cycle over a period of time rather than tied to an upfront fee. This allowed them to book recurring revenue and eventually profit from economies of scale with more users. As often happens, this also reduced piracy because the risk-reward ratio was no longer in favour of trying to circumvent the legal channels when the cost was so minimal.

Now, coming to the SMS industry, one of the biggest pain points that brands face today when leveraging SMS as a key marketing tool is the high pricing bands that they have to deal with from providers. In an age where a variety of options exist to bypass the telecom providers and adopt admittedly grey routes, the temptation of cost savings may prove too great.

Let us examine 3 ways in which pricing can hurt the industry critically and set the grounds for the untimely demise of SMS as a whole:

Unaffordable Mass Communication

As businesses today transition into a volume-based economies-of-scale model for deriving revenue, their messaging services need to cater to hundreds of thousands or even millions of customers daily. Traditional SMS price points would result in brands incurring massive operational costs that will easily overwhelm the savings they achieve through lower customer acquisition or retention costs with SMS.

Rise of Illegal Services

If providers aren’t willing to consider a restructuring of their SMS pricing strategies, there will be a rising number of illegal and incompetent players in the market that will partner with businesses offering lower costs. The problem here is that these services will ultimately put customer information and credentials at risk as they will have first-hand access to important A2P messaging services between brands and their customers.

Spamming and Fraud

Another big challenge that illegal SMS service provider partnerships will result in is that they will also open a whole new dimension of cyber fraud which will cost the industry dearly. To offer lower costs to businesses for SMS services, they will leverage the SMS message and append ads or promotional links for added revenue. Criminals and fraudsters can intercept these communication lines and compromise the appended links and message information. They can then use it to plug malware and other high-risk threats into end-user devices of unsuspecting consumers.

What these 3 major drawbacks of higher pricing do for the SMS industry is that it makes SMS a less trusted entity from a consumer perspective. More spam, fraudulent activities, and threats will result in customers eventually deciding not to avail SMS-based alerts and notifications from businesses. This has the potential to lead to the demise of the industry’s revenue prospects soon.

With so much potential for customer engagement and opportunities to diversify usage scenarios with each guaranteeing higher conversion, it will be a huge blow for the industry to let SMS die a slow death solely because of traditional and hidebound pricing problems.

SMS providers and businesses can collaborate on ideas to restructure pricing options that are meaningful for both stakeholders. One of the key factors that providers and businesses cite for costly SMS services is the need for enabling secure communications and fortifying their infrastructure to prevent spam and fraud. Rather than leveraging costly manual efforts to solve this problem, providers and businesses can leverage modern technology solutions to enable a more secure and integrated SMS communication channel. Over time, these solutions will reduce the manual effort, deliver scale, and create more secure channels. This will also lead to better cost control and management that could translate to better pricing options.

Using technology, businesses can also enable borderless communication strategies through SMS services. What they need is the right guidance and the aptest digital tools to enable this experience. This is where our expertise can help make a difference. Get in touch with us to explore more about building an amazing customer experience through SMS engagement without compromising on security or worrying about scale or geographic expansion capabilities.

5 Telecom Technology Trends To Keep An Eye On For 2021

The telecom industry has been at the crux of the global pivot to remote operations. Lacking robust and resilient connectivity, most of the world’s industries would have run aground during the pandemic!

Of course, telecom has always been a dynamic industry and sensitive to technological developments. So, what can the telecom industry look forward to in 2021?

From 5G to cybersecurity, here are five trends around telecom technologies to consider in 2021.

#1. 5G and IoT

5G and the Internet of Things are set to create a much bigger and broader backdrop for the telecom industry’s enterprise offerings.

2021 and beyond, 5G will be much more than high-speed downloads. Its combination of high-bandwidth connectivity, low latency, and universal coverage will facilitate smart vehicles and transport infrastructures like connected cars. 5G will allow telcos to create differentiated value-added offerings by embedding connectivity with products and services.

With 5G, telcos are all set to emerge as connected industry orchestrators. This implies trading fully connected industry solutions, embracing sensors, connecting value chains, cloud connectivity, and device as a service ecosystem. Telcos have changed the world around us by connecting phones, tablets, and other mobile devices, but connecting and managing increasing numbers of cars, meters, sensors, and consumer electronics lucratively will demand innovative business models.

Presently, most telco’s IoT revenues are derived from connectivity, but future revenue will also come from service enablement platforms, apps, and services. Telcos that can build and manage an ecosystem of service partners, filter data from their IoT platforms, and convert bulk data into smart data will build incremental revenue based on the data’s value rather than their ability to transport it.

#2. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Advanced Automation

Artificial intelligence is likely to impact the telecommunications landscape as it will all other sectors. As the telecom industry multiplies its networks faster, service configuration, customer support, and billing processes become increasingly complex. In the face of customer demands for superior quality services, telcos are seeking useful innovations and applications to cater to their customers with delightful customer experience and service.

The chief driver for AI growth in the telecom industry is the rising demand for autonomously driven network solutions. With networks expanding rapidly, they become increasingly complex and challenging to manage. AI could profoundly impact several areas – most critical being traffic classification to reduce network congestions, enhancing network quality, anomaly detection and prediction in networks, resource utilization, network optimizations, and network orchestration. Furthermore, AI will also help to improve customer experience with virtual assistants and bots.

With advanced automation, telcos can automate back-end activities like data entry, reconciliation, or validation, streamline customer support, and carry out cross-sell and up-sell via AI-powered assisted calls. Advanced automation will help telcos lower costs, improve accuracy, enhance efficiency, and deliver better customer experiences.

#3. Blockchain

Driven by stories around BitCoin, Blockchain has captured the popular imagination. The telecom industry is looking at Blockchain too. In this context, 5G could become a powerful enabler for a blockchain-led wave of telecom disruption empowering many cross-industry applications.

Blockchain is could help streamline processes, deliver cost savings, provide new revenue streams, enhance collaborations, and drive real-time transparency. Blockchain can help telcos in 2021 and beyond in areas like:

Roaming and settlements frauds, human errors, absence of transparency can be eradicated using smart contracts on Blockchain
Identity management can be fetched from multiple 3rd party agents and employed safely with Blockchain, passing greater control to individuals
SLA monitoring can be made tighter with Blockchain’s smart contracts, which builds ‘one version of the truth.’
Prevention of phone theft by storing unique device or SIM data on Blockchain which can potentially help find devices instantly
Mobile number portability can also be accelerated with Blockchain wherein telcos can review and action requests easier

#4. Edge Computing

Edge computing, commonly known as Mobile Edge Computing, or MEC, is set to radically reshape telecom networks, with a little help from its allies 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT). A study revealed that edge computing would power roughly $7 billion in revenue by 2025. Whereas as much as two-thirds of this revenue will accrue to cloud players, telcos, neutral hosts, and enterprises will play critical roles in hosting sites and facilitating connectivity.

Until now, edge computing was only building up use-cases. In 2021 and beyond, novel business models will come up that power the deployment of the edge in production. Organizations will find new ways to leverage the enhanced computing power and storage available closer to where the data is being generated and will appreciate the network saving achieved by not having to transmit data continuously between the cloud and the devices on the frontlines.

#5. Cybersecurity

Today, the telecom industry has become an enormous data repository with access to uber-sensitive customer data. They are also the platforms upon which digital lives revolve so that any service outage or loss of data can trigger significant inconvenience for the end-users and a large-scale disruption of business operations across industries. These aspects make telcos lucrative targets for cybercriminals looking to tamper with data and networks at scale.

With strict policies like EU-GDPR now in action, telcos – whether in India or abroad – can’t afford to regard cybersecurity as anything less than a critical function. With data security becoming a vital business mandate, a large-scale shift within the telecom industry is predicted towards a security-led method.

In the coming years, we will witness players prop up their defenses against direct threats, like distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, along with indirect vulnerabilities like data breaches and internal leaks. The IT frameworks facilitating telecom networks will become more robust. There is also the probability of telcos pushing cybersecurity solutions as part of their service offerings to assure better threat defense for their consumers.

Looking Beyond the Present Landscape

After undergoing numerous years of sluggish economic growth, the telecom industry, as we know it today, is enthused by these tech trends and the opportunities presented by digitization. To thrive in the long run, telcos need to drive customer value while reducing costs and differentiating themselves. It is irrefutable that the success or failure of telcos relies on their adoption of technology. In 2021, telcos can attain a competitive edge, flexibility, agility, and capacity to gain more opportunities with technology.

What Are The “Must-Have” Features Of A Cutting-Edge A2P SMS Platform?

A quick scroll through the multiple SMS alerts on your mobile phone will show you just how much businesses have been using SMS to reach out to their customers. Whether it is sending promotional messages, transaction alerts, OTPs for security, or personalized messages like a birthday discount on products, businesses have been using SMS to connect with the customers. This type of SMS is called Application to Person (A2P) messaging and it has become a go-to tool for businesses.

Unlike social media channels, paid ads, or emails, A2P messages are more personalized and engaging as they communicate directly to the customer. 98%of SMS messages are opened as compared to 20% of emails. The click-through rates are 19% as compared to 2% for emails’. Businesses have been constantly increasing their adoption of A2P SMS. No wonder the A2P SMS market is touted to be a $77.1 billion market by 2026.

Every business is looking for a cutting-edge A2P SMS platform that can help them reach out to their customers better and improve their conversions.

However, to be considered effective, the A2P SMS platform must possess the following features.

Must-Have Features A Cutting-Edge A2P SMS Platform Must Possess

Rich communication services (RCS)

Conventional SMS’ are plain texts. However, instant messaging platforms paved the way for media-rich communication. Businesses realized that using media-rich messages can help them capture the customers’ attention and engage them. They can send website links, QR codes, images, ticket or boarding passes, product carousels, etc., through A2P SMS. This helps businesses to build long-term customer engagement and create a unique identity of their brand. RCS support is one of the first things that businesses must look for in an A2P SMS platform. The platform must support all types of rich communication. The platform should allow businesses to share geo-targeted texts, photos, and video notifications to customers. The platform should also allow businesses to have a two-way interaction with their customers through interactive functionalities such as chatbots, quizzes, and polls. The objective is to help businesses build an effective and direct communication channel with their customers.

API connectivity

An A2P SMS API enables businesses to connect to a reliable SMS gateway so that they can send bulk promotional and transactional messages to their customers around the world securely. These messages are sent and received through applications, webs, or systems. Businesses prefer API connect as it helps automate the messaging process. So, businesses don’t have to send messages manually to every platform. They can automate this task so that thousands of messages are automatically sent within seconds. This is especially useful when businesses do SMS campaigns. API connect also offers integration with CRM, so businesses can receive and maintain customer data efficiently. They can produce regular reports on how each integrated platform has generated traffic or met business goals. This enables the business to gauge each platform’s effectiveness and create data-centric campaigns. The flexibility and effectiveness make API connect a must-have feature in an A2P SMS platform. Businesses prefer it as it eliminates hard work and enables them to manage the campaigns efficiently.

Uses direct routes to send messages

Most often, businesses unknowingly send A2P messages through grey routes. So, when a business sends a message to a customer residing in the same country, it bounces across different global carriers and then sent to the recipient. In the process. it tries to hide the source of the message to the mobile networks. The stated aim is that the message is transmitted for a much-reduced cost. The attraction of the low cost encourages the businesses to send more bulk promotional messages. However, grey routes have their limitations. To begin with, it is unethical. It can also expose the recipient of the message to malicious attacks and expose the receiver to unnecessary risk. Secondly, there are no delivery receipts in grey routes, so businesses will have no trace of whether the messages were delivered. Finally, if a host network identifies a grey route, they will shut it down, and all the messages that were intended to be sent to the customer will never get delivered. Although direct routes may be comparatively more expensive, they are ethical, secure, and can quickly transmit a high volume of messages to customers. The A2P SMS platform must offer a direct route to transmit messages. They should be compliant with the wholesale roaming agreement. This will enable the businesses to send messages to their customers knowing that they will get delivered.

A2P SMS termination

A2P SMS termination presents a great opportunity for revenue growth. Businesses normally lose millions due to lost termination fees. It occurs because of the prevalence of grey routes that don’t charge transparently for message transmission or delivery outcomes. The business can be safeguarded by partnering with global OTTs, and A2P aggregators. Businesses can ensure that the SMS termination happens directly with them, so they can earn revenue from it. That’s why the A2P SMS platform must have direct interconnection with carriers and operators worldwide.

Conclusion

As we have understood by now, businesses are keen to use A2P SMS more frequently to communicate with the customers. Hence, it’s essential to keep pace with the changing ecosystem of A2P messaging and include these must-have features in the platform they choose. This will not just help in meeting the business needs, but will also keep them safe.

At Globe Teleservices, we offer international messaging services that provide businesses with a competitive advantage. We offer:

API connect for A2P bulk SMS campaigns
Direct interconnection with 100+ carriers and leading operators in more than 35+ countries for direct SMS termination
Direct routes and high-quality routes to safely send the messages to customers
Flexibility to send rich-media messages to customers

Will mobile security threats grow in 2022 (and can anything be done about that)

Mobile security is on top of everyone’s mind and for good reason – mobile phones are now seamlessly integrated into everyone’s personal or professional lives. Nearly all businesses allow employees to access corporate data from smartphones. This trend has become more prominent during the pandemic and is only expected to increase. Hence the focus on mobile security.

The mobile security market is poised to grow from $3.0 billion in 2019 to $7.2 billion by the end of 2024 driven by the increase in mobile payments and the rising security needs of the enterprise as they enable BYOD programs. The growing reliance on mobiles demands mobile operators to look at the security loopholes and threats that still exist in this ecosystem.

Here is a look at some of the mobile security threats that we are likely to hear more of in 2022

The grey route challenge

Grey routes continue to be a point of attention when it comes to security. One of the most common problems for MNO’s, grey routes can lead to huge losses to the operators. SMS grey routes are expected to lead to revenue leakages amounting to US$37.1 billion between 2020-2024. The total opportunity for A2P SMS stands at $27.48 billion in 2024 based on white route traffic. The revenue leakage to grey routes continues to be exceptionally high with an anticipated annual loss of $7.69 billion.

Next-gen impenetrable, robust, and resilient SMS firewalls will thus become imperative to block grey routes and prevent revenue leakage. Such firewalls also help in blocking illegal SMS traffic by active monitoring of Mobile Originated, Mobile Terminated, and Application Originated SMS and all entry points.

Real-time monitoring, System-level filtering & Intelligent SMS Firewall Rules can help MNO manage the grey route menace, prevent revenue losses, and improve customer faith by assuring their safety.

Network security attacks remain a point of concern

MNO’s will continue to improve network security in 2022 especially as Openness becomes a double edge sword. As technologies such as IoT and AI proliferate and 5G promises to mature, network operators have to protect their current network by improving their security architecture. As connected devices and data exchange promises to only increase, legacy networks may struggle to meet present-day security needs.

MNOs can look at network virtualization to support today’s complex security needs. Network Virtualization enables operators to leverage strategies such as network slicing to separate network resources and guarantee greater security. Since each of the network slices has an individual authentication process detecting changes in behaviour patterns or traffic becomes easier to identify and mitigate proactively.

SIM jacking and SMS phishing remain concerns

Telecom fraud such as SIM jacking and SMS phishing is not uncommon and won’t go away in the coming year as well. If anything, the hackers are only going to get smarter and more sophisticated.

Proactive route testing, home routing, and re-routing help operators analyze the information sent and received between two parties. Any discrepancy could reveal suspect routes which could then receive proactive attention.

Home routing helps the operators curtail faking and SMS spoofing by giving them control over the traffic generated abroad. Re-routing ensures that A2P messages are rerouted across tested routes to senders who do not allow A2P content termination.

Spoofing

SMS spoofing will continue to plague MNOs. SMS spoofing allows the sender to manipulate information. It disguises a user that has roamed into a foreign network and is submitting messages to the home network.

SMS spoofing is quickly evolving and is one of the fastest-growing methods to penetrate mobile operators. This challenge needs to be mitigated fast since mobiles are being used extensively for corporate marketing and branding and mobile advertising. SMS spoofing becomes a threat since it can be achieved easily since almost all phones today have access to and can be accessed from the internet.

Robust SMS firewall solutions with features such as global tile blocking, legal interception, blocking messages based on system-level filtering, intelligent SMS firewall rules, map operation codes, Live GUI and CDR for analysis, etc. can help MNOs tackle the spoofing menace.

Refiling, A-Party Refiling, A-Party Caller Spoofing are also security areas of focus to prevent revenue leakage owing to voice fraud. These are methods through which clearinghouses or transit carriers terminate traffic to an operator, spoof the CLIs (Calling Line Identity) of calls to a network. False answer supervision allows the call to be answered but not reported back to the caller. This drives up the minutes and cost of the call, while the MNOs don’t realize the revenue.

AI-ML-based voice firewalls can prevent these threats and protect operators and enterprises from all kinds of voice fraud from both incoming and outgoing traffic. They can identify suspicious inbound and outbound traffic streams based on behavioral patterns and anomalous traffic. This also protects subscribers from fraud, quality fluctuation, and surprise bills.

Data security

The focus on data security is only going to increase in 2020 especially with the proliferation of financial services into the mobile space. As telecom companies add value-added services and integrate digital payments into the mix of their offerings, elevating data security assumes primary importance.

Enabling e-KYC solutions that are comprehensive and secure and capably create digital identities will improve the verification and authentication processes while delivering a higher degree of security and data privacy. GPS and OCR technologies coupled with AI and Machine Learning can optimize the KYC process and make it more secure and trustworthy.

AI-based identity and document validation and verification coupled with geo-location identification become essential technologies that help MNOs balance regulatory requirements without compromising security and customer experience.

The rise of the mobile as a tool to drive and foster better customer engagement can also be credited to mobiles becoming an extension of our lives and our workplaces. Given this, keeping mobile security top of the mind not only makes sense but becomes essential in the wake of rising cyber threats and attacks.

How Africa’s Telecom Companies Are Ushering in A Revolution

Worldwide, the traditional telecom industry has witnessed traditional revenue streams shrink but as the industry seeks further development and growth it’s turning its attention to Africa.

The mobile revenue in Africa is predicted to grow to $68 billion by 2022. While voice revenues in all likelihood will be flat as cheaper OTT services remain popular among cost-conscious customers, mobile broadband and digital services revenue are all predicted to double over the same period. The pressures on conventional revenue streams have started an industry-wide push for innovations that can utilize the massive infrastructure and data most telcos possess.

In the context of Africa, some new influences are visible and some of the same conditions apply as do in the rest of the world.

Modern customers want greater convenience and enhanced experiences and are open to engaging with their service providers via increasingly complex omnichannel initiatives. ‘Sculpting customer experiences’ is the mantra today. Providing connectivity and digital access remains the essential part of the telcos’ offering, but there’s so much more for them to do now and plan for in the years to come. As technology evolves rapidly, ubiquitous connectivity will become table stakes and the game will be all about what more can telcos offer?

Innovation-fed transformation across the telecoms value chain is driving African telecom operators to plan for these new value propositions. Digital technologies have brought several new aspects to light. The growing ubiquity of smart devices has catalyzed customer demand for new services and increasingly personalized experiences. New entrants intensify competition creating downward pressure on pricing, and regulations are becoming stronger. To maintain a competitive edge and relevance, telcos must look for newer ways to differentiate themselves, get and hold customers, and power top-line growth.

There are four aspects where investment in digital technologies will be particularly valuable.

Networks of tomorrow
New digital offerings
Reimagining customer engagement
Bridging the gap in innovation

For African telecom companies, the ‘new’ journey will be a harmonizing act: they need to safeguard their primary offerings while rotating to the new—identifying, developing, and releasing new digital offerings — to drive revenue growth.

While African telecom companies are looking to contain costs, they are also seeking revenue growth. Utilizing its large customer base, each telecom company has developed diversification plans based on data services, digital services, mobile money services, and Value Added Services (VAS).

Data Services

Mobile handsets are perhaps the leading sources of individual customer data available currently. Telcom companies are at the forefront of data custodianship as subscribers use various data-generating apps and services connected to their mobile devices. These present considerable opportunities for telecom companies to mine enormous amounts of individual customer data, build complex and multidimensional customer profiles, and develop individualized customer offers and experiences to deepen brand affinity and increase wallet share.

Africa’s data revolution is rolling in full swing, and telecom companies, both old and new, embrace a range of strategies – from cheap smartphones to the roll-out of fast speed networks – to maintain and grow their data revenue, while not neglecting voice completely.

The increased affordability of data-enabled devices is driving the data explosion. With the rise in data use, simple voice calling handsets are losing their luster, and several African operators are now selling cheap smartphones via partnerships with Chinese device manufacturers such as Huawei and Tecno.

Also, there is a batch of exclusive LTE entrants arriving in Africa. With no history of offering voice services, these new entrants have bypassed 2G and 3G networks and directly built LTE networks in Africa. For instance, Surfline Communication launched Ghana’s first LTE network in 2014. African governments have been granting data-only licenses, wherein telecom companies can only begin providing voice when they have hit certain penetration levels with data.

Value-Added Services

Telecom companies can decide to own the customer rather than the network. This model places telcos higher up the value chain through a customer-centric lifestyle platform. Use cases like content streaming, banking services, and gaming, can give telecom companies revenues by adding and diversifying the present mobile services–reliant ARPU. Building an ecosystem that caters to end-to-end apps will allow telcos the opportunity to monetize both transaction and subscription fees, besides higher data consumption.
This is great for telecom companies, as they own a ready-made platform for seizing additional customer spending. They can build 360-degree profiles of their customers, that companies can collect, act on, and monetize. Mobile money, is a valuable entry point for telcos to grow, as Safaricom did with M-Pesa.

Mobile Money

Globally, there is no other continent that moves more money on mobile phones than Africa. The continent is presently responsible for an astounding 45.6% of mobile money activity in the world—an estimate of at least $26.8 billion in transaction value in 2018 alone—this number excludes bank-operated solutions.

Africa’s telecom companies are at the forefront of plans to bring banking to millions of Africans, in some cases for the first time, after the coronavirus dramatically accelerated the use of digital financial services.

By offering customers frictionless payment options besides other mobile financial services, telecom companies add considerable value and play a fundamental role in driving change. Technology firms (old and new), retailers, mobility companies – and others – are all looking for ways to incorporate mobile financial services into their business models. The timing is perfect for telecom companies that are looking to capitalize on their reach in remote villages and urban slums to pivot to financial services and banking.

Adapting to New Landscapes

Telcos looking to improve outcomes and eliminate inefficiencies are running a comprehensive analysis of the state of their operations, utilizing a customer-centric lens. Where are their fundamental capabilities most potent? Are they tactically employing resources to support the right competencies? Where are they falling short on delivering an exceptional customer experience? Where must operations be reinforced—and where should they be restructured?

Revolutionary telcos must decide what they are – a utility or a tech innovator? Either choice has extensive tactical implications that will impact everything from leadership down to the frontline operating model. In many cases, it could overturn how these businesses have been run for decades.

Regardless of the approach, African telcos will require to shift their trajectory quickly if they want to stay in the game. By investing in a customer-centric approach, they will be better placed to enhance customer loyalty, reduce churn, increase ARPU, and capture more spending even as their markets mature. But these changes demand time, calculated focus, and investment—all of which will be limited if telcos wait too long to make their play.

Will M2M, Big Data, and AI help create a new world of business messaging?

When it comes to the world of messaging, we might think that the ubiquitous messaging apps have overtaken SMS in the race for adoption. However, while person-to-person SMS messaging is reducing, when it comes to business messaging, A2P messaging, and M2M, SMS is growing. The A2P market, for example, is all set to grow from USD 62.1 billion in 2020 to USD 72.8 billion by 2025.

Telecom operators, however, are under significant pressure to improve business opportunities, increase their customer base, and improve brand recognition and credibility in the face of rising competition from OTT platforms.

Coming to their rescue are M2M (Machine to Machine), Big Data, and AI – transformative technologies that hold the promise to change the world of business messaging.

Conversations regarding messaging and the telecom sector are incomplete without speaking of 5G. In this context, most of the focus on 5G is over super-sized networks and powerful applications. With 5G, telecom operators also can identify ways to leverage the connectivity to drive enriching customer interactions keeping business messaging in the mix for the growing market in M2M communication.

While 5G is still “on the way”, let’s focus on technologies such as M2M, Big Data, and AI in the current ecosystem and evaluate how they can make business messaging more impactful to create customer stickiness. These technologies can also solve some of the challenges of increasing grey route areas and greater security.

Improved delivery success rate

Over the last few years, technologies such as M2M have made the world of text messaging suitable for the business environment. Transformative business applications like Industrial Internet of Things, Smart Manufacturing, and Industry 4.0 were loath to depend on telecom networks. In the initial days, delivery success rates were poor and influenced by the devices. If the device was of a different carrier, then message delivery failure was highly likely. Back then, text messages in such business-critical contexts suffered due to a reputation for uncertainty.

Today, however, M2M communication and robust cellular networks make a successful partnership to drive impactful and timely business messaging. High-quality tier-1 routes can ensure maximum speed and deliverability and also provide the flexibility to schedule bulk message delivery to stay on top of the customer’s mind. Businesses can also make messaging more targeted and timely and make the overall customer experience more seamless and efficient with M2M technology.

Better customer interactions

A continuous focus on improving customer interactions is key to thriving in a challenging global business environment. Organizations have been using A2P messaging to improve better customer engagement. However, given that disruption is a constant, learning to listen closely to what the customer could want or is indicating is a skill that will guarantee customer stickiness.

Customers want intuitive experiences and, in a customer-first economy, developing the capability to identify what the customer wants, both explicitly and implicitly is important. Technologies such as Big Data and AI get to work here and deliver impact in conjunction with M2M to improve customer experiences.

Businesses and operators can offer products and value-added services based on big data analytics-driven by data generated from location tags, credit tags to partners, and interest tags. Enabling differentiated services according to different types of traffic, creating new business opportunities by wholesaling traffic, sponsored services, or premium delivery capably, and service offerings such as smart bundling, location-based packages, etc. become easier, as do the opportunities to drive profitability.
Technologies such as big data and AI also help telcos attract and develop the right partnerships and give them insights into how to capably bridge the gap between the current and expected outcomes by enabling better, more personalized, and contextual interactions.

Improved security

Research shows that between 2020-2024, revenue leakage to grey routes remains unacceptably high, with a cumulative loss of $37.1 billion, or an annual average leakage of $7.69 billion. Identifying next-gen solutions to make routes more secure to prevent revenue leakage becomes essential given the significant impact of grey route areas on telcos.

Integrating traditional messaging firewalls with big data and advanced analytics can capably detect a wider portfolio of fraudulent patterns. With the right insights in place using technologies such as AI, telcos can also reduce the time between fraud detection and blocking rules implementations.

In Conclusion

The disruptive power of M2M, Big Data, and AI have been at work across industries and have been used to drive elevated customer experiences, offer greater personalization, improve security, and enhance decision-making capabilities to drive greater profitability. These technologies now show that they have the power to disrupt and elevate the business messaging landscape. They can enable more targeted, secure, and contextual business messaging that drives better outcomes and positively impacts the bottom line.