Telecom's Top 6 Trends: What You Should Know

By Cam Ewoldt, Manager, Transport Networks, Great Plains Communications

Cam Ewoldt, Manager, Transport Networks, Great Plains Communications

In today’s digital word, the demand for bandwidth threatens to exceed the supply and popular technology requiring always-on connectivity will only increase the need for high-speed internet access in 2019 and beyond.

Innovative services such as telehealth and telemedicine offer enormous benefits, yet videoconferencing, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, remote patient monitoring, and other features all require high-speed internet connectivity to deliver healthcare at a distance.

From the insatiable demand for mobile data and the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) complex to the rollout of 5G, today’s businesses and consumers expect not only a constant connection they can depend on, but bandwidth to support their digital lifestyle.

So, what do telecom providers need to know to adapt? Let’s examine six top trends in the telecommunications industry what to expect and how to prepare.

6 Top Telecom Trends

These are some of the current and emerging market trends and the technology challenges telecom providers must be aware of.

1. Reliability and redundancy - A widespread service outage inevitably ends up reported on social media and a provider could find themselves trending on Twitter. During severe weather events, access to power and fuel can be nonexistent. Buried fiber deployments where fiber optic cables are installed underground have proven to be the most reliable. To ensure greater reliability and redundancy, it is advisable to construct and engineer a network with rings which provide the ability to switch the path of the network in the instance of a fiber cut or other issue with Layer 2, high speed and packet networks.

2. Speed and network latency - How quickly data, voice and video travel from one endpoint or node to another can directly affect customers’ satisfaction. Websites loading slow, retail sites providing a less than satisfactory checkout experience, or lags in VoIP calls negatively affect the customer experience. To avoid speed and latency issues, it is a best practice for providers to engineer connections in their network with the least amount of hops or distance on the backbone. This keeps traffic flowing quickly and without lag or interruption. In addition to this practice, Great Plains Communications has created unique routes to bypass highly congested core hubs. We compare this to building an express lane on the interstate, as these unique routes allow customers to bypass traffic.

3. Cloud communications - More and more businesses are moving enterprise data from on-premise servers to the Cloud. Employees today work from home, on the road, or anywhere with an Internet connection. A mobile and virtual workforce relies on cloud-based communication tools with the ability to connect directly to Azure, AWS and Google Cloud. It is important for providers to engineer their network to the optimal co-location and data centers that allow premium cloud connections. This requires research and thorough engineering on the front end in order to help optimize cloud services for customers.

4. Video - Online video content continues to grow in popularity. According to Statista, more than 500 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. In order to accommodate growing video content needs, some providers create video peering on their network or traffic prioritization that provides a direct video traffic shortcut to the provider. Doing this will help to ensure that video content performs without lag or buffering to the end user.

5. Scalability and flexibility - As a business expands, telecom providers must enable customers to seamlessly scale. It is important for providers to engineer capacity that will keep pace with the growing bandwidth demands. This isn’t a trend that is coming to an end. Fiber networks must meet the current goals of their clients, while positioning them for future success. That is why providers must engineer their networks with ample capacity to meet clients’ needs, while being able to add more bandwidth for them in a seamless fashion.

6. Location - The ability to connect multiple locations locally, regionally, nationally and internationally via the shortest routes reduces network vulnerability and is more cost effective. Engineering into key hub co-locations is vital to reaching key connections and will reduce network latency. This is another area where unique routes that take customers around heavily trafficked core-routes can be beneficial.

Prepare for Tomorrow

Businesses and providers need to think longterm. The need for more bandwidth is increasing everysingle day as the pace of technology and change continues to speed up. It is important for providers to be continually investing in their networks to make them more robust and unique in order to meet the rising needs of their clients.

It is also important for providers to get to know their clients. They must understand a client’s unique needs and engineer custom solutions that meet their current requirements, while building and engineering their network for optimal scalability to grow as their clients grow.

On the flipside, itis important for enterprise customers to understand the capabilities and commitment of their provider. The lowest price is not always the best solution. Businesses should research the provider they choose and that provider’s network to determine if they are a good fit to grow with them.