The Industry has One of the Highest Adoption Rates for RPA - Murtuza Kachwala, Protiviti India

By Murtuza Kachwala, Managing Director, Protiviti India

During COVID-19 pandemic, on account of work-from-home, fixed broadband uptake has increased among households. More than 600 million people became internet users over the last six years and another 600 million internet users are expected to join the bandwagon in the next five to six years. Mobile subscriptions and fixed broadband subscribers will continue to grow.

Technology trends such as cloud computing, internet of things (IoT), that were once viewed as emerging technologies have become a necessity today.

Cloud computing: COVID-19 has been driving new ways of doing work, leading to a dramatic effect on the requirement of networks. Remote working is the new trend. Telecom players should examine and define their overall cloud computing strategy to get a sustainable play in the market.

Internet of things (IoT): Interconnection between devices, sensors, infrastructure and computing elements further enables new ways for management. The foundation for future has already been laid where not just the devices interact but also a complex, ever-connected network of people, processes, data, and things, aided by the power of seamless internet connectivity.

5G: It is the next big upgrade of telecommunication network and devices. Providing high speed of network, increased capacity and lowest latency. Massive machine-type communications (mMTC) that 5G networks provide will support in creating high-density IoT networks.

In conclusion, future of telecommunication industry in India is bright in the new normal. COVID-19 has proved that individuals and businesses are now in favor of digitization. In light of these changes, 2021 could prove to be a pivotal year for the telecom industry.

The telecommunication industry has one of the highest adoption rates for robotic process automation (RPA) technology, since it offers high levels of scalability and agility and can take over many tasks such as report generation, responding to customer questions, order processing, price tracking and more. Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), intelligent automation, network virtualization, etc. are increasingly getting adopted by telecommunication operators.

Industry Concerns

Increased digitization and addition of mobile subscribers have put tremendous pressure on operators to upgrade the existing telecommunication infrastructure and make it a more resilient network. Telecommunication operators are re-evaluating their network strategy and adapting the speed of automation and digital transformation programs.

Some of the top challenges faced by telecommunication operators are related to high spectrum pricing in upcoming 5G auctions, complex right of way (RoW) rules, adjusted gross revenue (AGR) issues i.e., successful bidders in the upcoming auction of spectrum worth 3.92 lakh crore will also need to pay 3% AGR revenue and cell tower radiation speculations.

The variety and quality of services from telcos are increasing, profit margins are decreasing, and the lines between telecommunication operators and technology companies are blurring. Hence, they need to take a fresh look at the level of ICT innovation and adapt to digital transformation by creating strong cross-functional interfaces. Operational support services like service configuration, order fulfillment, customer care and billing have become increasingly complex requiring resources and different tools, thus, increasing the financial overhead.

The telecommunication industry faces several looming challenges in the form of network load and infrastructure optimization, effectively addressing subscriber grievances to reduce churn, provide data and voice services that are high quality, reliable and affordable and improving network security. Other challenges are associated with data privacy and cyber security.

The telecommunication industry also faces challenge of lack of skilled manpower in rural and semi-rural areas and extremely high level of competition for a limited spectrum, wherein, new players find it difficult to grab a fair share of the spectrum in the auctioning process. Spectrum allocation, therefore needs to be more efficient and transparent.

Key Solutions

To ensure continuity in service and meet government regulation on quality service indicators, telcos require huge investment to upgrade and increase the capacity of their existing infrastructure. The telecom industry is now making increasing use of digital technologies that allows transmission integration, switching, processing, and retrieval of information and also provides opportunities to merge various service models into an integrated whole.

Even though digitalization and merging of communications and computation functions have caused substantial advances in device and material technology, concerns remain about the integrity and authenticity of the information to be provided, as well as privacy protection.

What’s in Store?

The telecommunication industry in India is the second largest in the world with a subscriber base of 1.17 billion. The broadband subscribers have reached 765.1 million in February 2021. Telecommunication industry witnessed an exponential growth primarily driven by affordable tariffs, rollout of mobile number portability (MNP) and increased coverage of 3G and 4G. This massive growth and upcoming 5G technology have opened the gates to numerous opportunities in India.

With the COVID crisis, there has been a huge demand of data. 5G technology promising high speed and huge capacity will be the next technology frontier in the telecommunication sector. Further, mobile and cloud value-added services (VAS) and EDGE computing have become a new revenue stream providing used cases opportunities in media processing, telemedicine, video surveillance, manufacturing, and a myriad of immersive applications such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and gaming.

Another opportunity that has emerged from demonetization coupled with the push on the digital economy is the widespread adoption on mobile wallets and mobile banking. During COVID crisis, contactless transactions are preferred. It is estimated that transactions done on a mobile wallet in Q2 2019 stood at Rs 1.08 billion and those via unified payment interface (UPI) was Rs 2.27 billion.

Tower sharing, green energy solutions, untapped rural market, industrial applications and cloud computing are few of the other opportunities that telecommunication operators should explore and invest. To summarize, the telecom market in India is lucrative enough for all kind of players, especially those who can achieve rolling out of 5G and related services.

Consolidation of telcos presents several opportunities for surviving operators as and when prices revive to levels in line with costs. Tele-density in rural areas remains one of the main areas of growth for the operators, considering it is still very low.