Trends 2016: The 'elements' telecoms can brace for this year

By Girish Trivedi

The many developments that can impact how industry evolves in 2016.

• Move towards consolidation: 2016 will set the tone for an upcoming structure of the industry. Entry of new players like Reliance Jio will enhance competition and as a result can lead to few players looking to build synergies. Possible stake sell or friendly mergers can initiate in 2016.
• Price wars/ Migration to 4G: Launch of Reliance Jio, better data bundles and device bundle offerings can be seen in 2016. This will lead to escalation in price wars. However, choice will continue to be bread and butter… We expect a revival in better voice offerings as well. Reason being as more customer will move to 4G and 3G, the network will free up for more price-conscious users.
• BSNL revival: This can impact Pan-India players, given the reach BSNL has. However it will depend on how quickly they get their house in order, expand capacities and improve services.
• New technologies and areas:  Cloud services, Mobile Broadband (3G /4G), OTT services, will continue to expand.
• Smartphones: We will continue to grow as fastest growing smartphone market. More players will enter offerings me-too products.  Product launches will intensify and will remain a hyper competitive market in entry levels and mid-market segments.
• Preference for fiber network: We can see resurgence for fiber connectivity. The need for consistently better connectivity, and use of Wi-Fi for data connectivity will lead to this demand.
• Enterprise offerings: Enterprise offerings will see a growth especially M2M, Industrialized IoT, Big Data, Digitization across verticals.

(The author, Girish Trivedi, Co-Founder, is Director, Monk Consulting)