Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

Attributed By: Marc Price, Chief Technology Officer, MATRIXX Software

Consumer consumption habits are rapidly changing, and this will in turn herald a new era of service delivery and technological innovation. A study by video advertising platform SpotX revealed that almost 400 million people in APAC use OTT streaming platforms – that’s more than the entire population of the United States. People are spending more time on these platforms than traditional TV – and cable TV is starting to lose its sheen. Media behemoth Disney shut down 13 channels across Southeast Asia in order to focus on Disney+. This slow and steady paradigm shift has major implications for service providers’ business models and architectures that had been built to accommodate linear video distribution and cable subscription models. Video traffic is growing at an unprecedented pace, and increasingly over-the-top channels are the sole delivery channel. The disruptive implications of these changes include more aggressive rollouts of fixed wireless access, accelerated deployment of edge caching mechanisms, and entirely new monetization schemes to replace outdated revenue models.

The number of IoT devices will continue to outstrip the global population

2021’s tipping point was reached when the number of connected devices for the Internet of Things (IoT) exceeded the number of connected devices for humans. The trend will continue to accelerate in 2022, as there will be more than 30 billion globally connected IoT devices and a little under 8 billion people, not all of whom are connected.

Low-Earth Orbit Satellites will bring more people online

New access networks are emerging to reach these devices (and people) and serve an insatiable demand for new services. For a region with vast disparity in internet connectivity like Asia Pacific – 2.4bn remain offline – Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites could be a blessing as they can better connect remote and inaccessible regions. New satellite and private network entrants will both complement existing networks and become competitors for broadband services.

Campus-based and private networks will enter the mainstream

In 2022, we’ll see a surge in new interest for campus-based and private networks. Security, data privacy, latency, and edge caching for optimization and analytics will drive initiatives that would have been cost-prohibitive or unmanageable previously. New standards and regulatory changes are helping campus solutions push into the mainstream. We will see innovative new business models for emerging ecosystems of device, content, and business partners, while entirely new types of service providers emerge.

Wearables will evolve to incorporate mixed reality

In 2022, we’ll see mixed reality glasses come to market. These new devices will open the door for all-new customer experiences and engagement. With smartphones, consumers have grown accustomed to purchasing connectivity and devices separately. However, growth in demand for new types of devices, requiring more specialized contextual connectivity models will drive change. The price of devices and services is more likely to be seamless and separated from connectivity charges, leading to more creative new partnerships and business models, for business-to-business-to-consumer (B2B2C) engagement. CSPs will be forced to adapt if they’re going to succeed in the dawn of the metaverse.

5G will well and truly be here

The benefits and potential of 5G standalone will enter the market. Globally, customers will realise entirely new services on emerging devices, while CSPs will begin to harness the operational benefits that come with a new cloud-native core. Just as communication services have evolved in the past, this time we’ll see a generational shift in the way people communicate for business and pleasure. The rich set of capabilities delivered with 5G standalone are just emerging, and 2022 is the year we begin to fulfil its promise.

Blockchain will find its way to Telco

GSMA recently completed a study on blockchain for wholesale services. As blockchain and web 3.0 become increasingly mainstream, we’ll see telco experimenting with innovative ways to harness energy and enthusiasm for entirely new ways to build infrastructure and manage data.

(0)(0)