Telecom’s data revolution: Adapting for a connected future

It is time telcos pivot to data-centricity to unlock efficiencies, commercialise data, harness AI, and fortify data strategies for transformative growth.

With 2024 well underway, the telecommunications industry is primed for a major transformation. The extensive amount of data gathered by providers daily presents a substantial advantage for the industry. However, many providers have been slow in adapting to a data-centric, highly connected environment. This is especially stark when comparisons are made with providers of streaming, mobile payments, and video conferencing applications, which are ironically driven by the services of telecommunications providers.

So, the wealth of data telecom companies can access through streamers, for instance, represents a gold mine. The caveat, though, is whether providers can pivot to data-centricity. This will be vital in the days to come.

#1

Data holds the key to customer experiences, supply chain management

Heightened customer expectations. Growing supply chain complexity. These are just a couple of the imperatives for unlocking new operational efficiencies. By utilising network data, service providers can develop hyper-personalisation, for instance. Hence, expect telecommunications providers to embrace new technologies, particularly modern data platforms, to harness existing data resources.

Service providers will also employ data to address supply chain challenges by analysing customer complaints, reorder logs, and other data sources to improve inventory management. Data-driven decision-making will be leveraged to ensure the timely delivery of customer equipment such as routers, modems, VoIP adapters, and satellites, with equipment potentially pre-staged to expedite deployment.

#2

Growing need for data to be commercialised

Telecom service providers have been conservative in their efforts to commercialise data despite the substantial amounts they collect and its inherent value. Factors that contribute to this conservatism involve data privacy compliance, data segregation, and a lack of proficiency in data analytics.

But this is set to change as business leaders realise the need to better understand the context in which they operate as part of identifying potential business opportunities. This requires insights into regional trends, industry benchmarks, and more. In turn, this requires telecommunications companies to both capitalise on their data assets and pursue external data sources.

Telecom service providers have been conservative in their efforts to commercialise data despite the substantial amounts they collect and its inherent value.

Another driving force for the latter will be the significant demand for training data by large language models (LLMs). This also presents an avenue for telecommunications companies to diversify revenue streams through the sale of their data, with a focus on ensuring strong privacy and governance protocols.

#3

Impetus from generative AI

While the industry has already been utilising AI for use cases such as anomaly detection and recommendation engines for customers, the emergence of generative AI-driven advancements opens up significant potential for breakthroughs. For example, Allied Market Research estimates that, globally, AI in the telecommunication market was valued at USD 1.2 billion in 2021, projecting that this would reach USD 38.8 billion by 2031. Meanwhile, in India, AI is also growing at a rapid pace, with a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry, anticipating the telecom industry as a potential key driver of the AI market’s estimated USD 7.8 billion evaluation by 2025.

Outside of telecommunications, generative AI-powered innovations include near-instant, highly precise results from translation tools, as well as the analysis of medical and pharmaceutical data to identify new treatments and potentially uncover novel medical breakthroughs.

Within the sector, generative AI will enhance customer experience through improved customer self-service and the reduced need for human intervention. Generative AI is already revolutionising support teams within telecommunications providers, from AI-driven chatbots to AI-optimised knowledge bases for support personnel. The future holds the promise of further advancements in intuitive issue-solving empowered by generative AI.

#4

Breakthroughs emphasise the value of a robust data strategy

Telecom service providers have long been under pressure to formulate an extensive and future-oriented data strategy. Breakthroughs such as generative AI do not change this. Quite the opposite, they intensify the need to dismantle data silos and facilitate access to data repositories dispersed throughout the organisation.

The efficacy of any model hinges on the quality of the data used in its training, with LLMs being no exception. To enhance their performance, service providers must also tap into, or collaborate on, data from the entire telecommunications ecosystem. This hinges on businesses in the telecommunications sector bolstering their data strategy significantly.

Companies that have already devised a forward-thinking and comprehensive data plan are in a favourable position. The crux of the matter lies in the elevated significance of the data strategy and the urgency in executing and investing in it swiftly. There exists a substantial opportunity for telecommunication organisations prepared to embrace a unified data strategy.

There is no doubt that the year ahead will bring many challenges and opportunities for the telecommunications industry. However, providers have all the tools to navigate developments, they just need to meld them together and rein in complexity. Ultimately, this is what will foster data-driven collaboration that drives the industry to push the envelope.

By Fawad Qureshi

The author is the Global Industry Field CTO at Snowflake.

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