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Hi! Welcome to The Fast Mode's 2019 Trends and Outlook. From September 2018 to January 2019, we will be picking out some of the best predictions submitted to us and have them published in this segment. From topics such as AI, Machine Learning, Blockchain, 5G, Virtualization, Software Defined to Drones, Virtual Reality and the Digital Telco, we gather views from leading companies in telecommunications on what 2019 bodes for the industry and how might today's solutions and technologies impact the future services and innovations in this space. To submit your entries, email tara.neal@thefastmode.com.
By Martin Morgan, VP of Marketing
...operator and vendor co-development will move up a gear next year, as network transformation driven by open source, DevOps & Microservices continues apace. In 2019, this open approach to developing functions will provide the environment to turn traditional telecoms software development models on their head, working themselves towards the OSS/BSS layer. Some large operators will...
By John Giere, President & CEO
5G in 2019: Operators Face up to the Good, the Bad and the Ugly with Mobile Data
...subscription data. 5G’s service-based data architecture presents operators with ‘stateless’ cloud service, however, which, rather than storing data from once session to the next, instead rely on common external data management. Given the huge complexity of these and other new data management requirements, a ‘common’ data approach is therefore recommended...
By Daniel Forsgren, Senior Vice President Product Strategy
Top 5 Predictions for 2019 - The Connected Society Coming of Age
...the area of network virtualization and software defined networking will go from proof-of-concept to large scale deployment. In the enterprise domain, vCPE for SD-WAN is an example of where we will see increased rollout and deployment of real solutions. Paradoxically, as this becomes the new normal, we will hear less and less about SDN and NFV specifically, and more about “network transformation”...
By Irina Palade, Product Manager
Winning with Telecom Analytics in 2019
...to make sure there is robust security, carriers will increasingly rely on intelligence from security detection solutions that use deep packet inspection. Deep packet inspection (DPI) is critical here. DPI continuously monitors all data packets, looks for anomalies and makes decisions based on pre-defined rules. It examines network metrics, such as traffic volume, bandwidth consumption and protocol usage according to....
By Tango Telecom
5G Is a Catalyst for Change, but Where Is the Money?
...continuous delivery is transforming the way vendors deliver to network operators and the operational and business benefits have been proven to be many. For example, it means that operators can now keep pace with Over-the-Top (OTT) providers by increasing their market and technology responsiveness. However, this new model means that existing commercial, deployment, and support models will become defunct. We need to think of new ways of doing business....
By Angus Ward, CEO Digital Platform Solutions
5G Business Priorities for Operators in 2019
...digital business platforms will be the weapons of choice for CSPs to commercialize 5G. They bring together customers and partners into an interconnected ecosystem. By combining 5G connectivity with tools and technologies like AI/algorithms, cloud, content, devices, data, IT applications, physical assets, security, sensors and services (monetized “Anything-as-a-Service”, or “XaaS”), a platform approach facilitates the multi-sided co-innovation.....
By Itai Weissman, VP of Product Management
Determinants of Success in Tomorrow’s Ultra-Connected World
...with hackers getting more sophisticated in their attack methods, it is safe to say most future attacks will be zero-day attacks. This means real-time anomaly detection is vital, and only AI and ML are equipped to generate this level of defense. Similarly, AI and ML are imperative to detecting QoE impacting issues. Today, simply identifying the problems is not enough. Everyone’s expecting real-time detection of issues along.....
By R. Ezhirpavai, VP of Technology
3 Reasons Why 2019 Changes Everything
...2019 will also see growing momentum in terms of research and prototyping projects around the integration of blockchain into the IoT, and how the IoT will enable greater automation and impact an organisation’s digital transformation - each project a hot topic in its own right. Businesses will experiment and create islands of blockchain-enabled integrated and automated plant operations and supply chain management use cases, for example, allowing them to perform outcome assessments....
By Jordan Zhu, Director, Cell Site Solutions and Service Provider
4 Key Trends That Will Shape Smart Cities in 2019
...wireless infrastructure is becoming more centralized, so it makes more sense to converge all the wireless backhaul traffic onto the same fiber used by wireline services. The process of fiber network convergence is primarily driven by the development of enabling technologies, user demand and service providers’ capabilities. Large incumbent service providers have both wireline and wireless operations, so converging onto a single network and maximizing asset utilization....
By Al Castle, VP of Product and Engineering
2019: The Year of Complex Cloud Evolution
...we’ll see CSPs follow suit and join forces with other communications offerings that will improve their availability to remain relevant in the world of modern IT, IoT and development. And in order to avoid commoditization, CSPs will continue to adapt and offer improved features for their enterprise customers. However, in order to do this in a way that aligns with modern customers’ preferences, CSPs will partner and ultimately become XaaS companies....
By John D' Ambrosia, Chairman
...as these vehicles become increasingly networked and connected to the cloud with their own growth in access rates - they will present yet another significant pressure that mobile networks will be called upon to service. As an emerging space, it is unclear yet what applications will be introduced, and as a result, the potential bandwidth demand of connected cars, especially for autonomous driving, could be staggering, especially....
By Ellen Warren, IP Product Marketing Manager
Operationalize 5G with Segment Routing
...besides greater simplicity and reduced operations costs, the real force driving adoption of segment routing is the coming of 5G. New 5G services will have various requirements for bandwidth, latency, reliability and security that can be served by placing computing engines and data in the appropriate private or public cloud, whether that is at the edge, in the core or somewhere in between. Network slices are engineered to....
By Hubert Yoshida, VP and CTO
...enterprises need to make the most of information technology - to engage with customers in real time, maximize return on IT investments and improve operational efficiency. Accomplishing this requires a deep understanding of what is happening in their data centers to predict and get ahead of trends, as well as the ability to automate action so staff are free to focus on strategic endeavors. A data center is like an IoT microcosm....
By Thomas Nilsson, CTO
2019 - It’s Not Just About 5G!
...however, the next - and biggest step - for operators is to start making predictions about what might happen. In other words, we can already understand what people and devices do, and how this relates to network and service performance: what we hope to achieve is the ability to predict what will happen based on past events. It has taken significant advances in data processing to establish processes through which operators....
By Curtis Adair, President
Software is Transforming our Future
...CSPs will rely on the aid of business intelligence and analytics in making strategic and operational decisions, such as where to invest capital dollars in the network and which promotions to offer customers. Data analytics will be applied to managing capacity and performance, delivering assurance, and gaining effective operations. This tool-set will be essential as technology solutions evolve to become more intelligent, programmable....
By Brian Naughton, CTO
In 2019, Networking Will All Be up in the Clouds
...NFV, which was designed around appliance virtualisation, will be replaced by Cloud-based Networking which has become a problem for telecoms and enterprise as cloud-native networking becomes the norm. Cloud-based networking’s popularity, driven by the demand for workloads to be run on public and private clouds, and helped along by companies such as IBM and Amazon, brings with it the requirement to figure out complex....
By Albrecht von der Recke, COO and Founder
Changing Fortunes for Operators in 2019
...clawing back revenues from network rollouts will require operators to replicate an extension of what has already worked for them in 4G. Big data analytics can be used to better understand the digital customer journey, for example, while AI can be employed to analyze opportunities in real-time, with sales automation providing contextually-relevant offers, also in real-time. This smart aggregation of technologies will....
By Natasha Tamaskar, VP of Global Marketing & Sales Strategy
Predictions for 2019: The Year of Network Transformation
...broadband service providers are turning to open hardware and software to reduce costs. SD-PON (Software-Defined Passive Optical Network) enables these service providers to transition their expensive and proprietary legacy OLTs to white box hardware with SDN control. It delivers to broadband service providers a common software platform that is “access agnostic” and can be used for any broadband access technology....
By Moshe Peterfreund, Product Marketing Director
Beyond 5G: To Monetization and Revenue Management
...however, IoT - and especially IoT monetization - will not only be about connectivity. One of the trends we will see in 2019 is the move by CSPs to better understand the transaction itself, to define the IoT usage - and therefore to effectively monetize that. This will require the ability to not only count the transactions, but to understand each different transaction; to manage different partners within the value chain and to be able to create new....
By Ofer Gottfried, CEO
The Mobile Internet in 2019 - Mobile Video Addiction and Family Safety Hazards on the Rise
...with subscribers having more choices for messaging and content services, operators will be pressured to provide smooth video streaming, slick clicks, and fast web page loading. There will be a need to measure response times at a granular level so that capacity can be managed more efficiently, and subscriber frustration can be kept at bay to prevent churn. 2019 will escalate the challenge to deliver growing volumes of bandwidth hungry content....
By Richard Piasentin, Chief Marketing & Chief Strategy Officer
5G Is Nothing Short of Radical
...operators worldwide are investing in 5G to drive down cost-per-bit and to enter new markets with an array of services from IoT, to industrial control applications, high-speed mobility, ultra-broadband, and more. These services place diverse demands on the network, radically shifting the focus to service level monitoring. Also in play is the fact that operators are not all going out 5G development in the same way. Two approaches predominate....
By Gavin Hayhurst, Product Marketing Lead
TEOCO Predicts Smart Cities, SD-WAN, IoT and eSports to Pick up Pace in 2019
...but operators can’t - and won’t - double their networks to solve these capacity challenges. That means getting the most out of the infrastructure in the interim will be key. Analytics will therefore become critical to analyse subscriber behaviour in real time. Machine learning can be used to predict how each service is provisioned in real time. Behavioural insights can shape the network for video platform content....
By Akil Chomoko, Product Marketing Director
Operators Will Embrace Change, and 5G, to Create New Business Models
...operators will continue to evaluate mobile plans that balance recouping investment while enticing take-up with models such as multi-companion, n-play and application-based formats. However, a significant area of return still falls on the use of 5G to provide agile private 5G QoE/S linked networks to enterprises and partners via wholesales, IoT and business deals. This is still Phase 2 away but we will....
By Jeff Sharpe, Director, Product Strategy and Business Development
The Fourth Industrial Revolution: It’s Not a Race, It’s a Well-Orchestrated Marathon
...the rise of the IoT - bringing together a global network of devices, sensors and systems - has removed the walls that existed between IT and OT. Essentially, IT and OT are becoming one in the same, with a common purpose. From an OT perspective, the ability to deliver real-time value and data can translate into new products and services. The power of connectivity available through IT systems means innovations....
By Steven Van Zanen, Head of Product Management and Marketing
5G Interworking: Going Beyond the 5G Technology Silo
...however, the days for standalone, single technology solutions are numbered. 5G in its optima forma delivers true convergence: the 5G NG Core will be managing Mobile (3G, 4G, 5G), Fixed and Wi-Fi. This opens all sorts of security challenges, which can only be tackled effectively through a central firewall function. This function provides a single view of all signaling related to a subscriber session and can....
By Tommaso Crackett, Investment Director
Top Tech Trends for 2019 - Consumerisation of Tech, RPA, Data Security and the Rise of Mobile Gaming
...but it can also be enhanced by machine learning and AI to deliver so much more, enabling business intelligence at scale, live. For example, historically in simple automation, a business can see a consumer is interested in a product and delivers to them a follow up email. Using intelligent analytics, it can find similar consumers to test this product on and suggest other products that it predicts the customer....
By Steve Polsky, Founder and CEO
...Southeast Asia, India and more African countries as the proliferation of smartphones continue to rise sharply in these regions. People may not have a bank account but they do have a smartphone. These telecom operators can deliver an expansive customer base to companies financial services companies that can help customers send money to each other and use credit....
By Dominik Pacewicz, Head of BSS Product Management
5G Could Make or Break Operators in 2019 - Here’s 4 Reasons Why
...with 5G’s high speed and ultra-low latency set to unlock the IoT’s full potential, we can expect to see even more deployments. They won’t necessarily be related to specific industry verticals, such as smart metering or manufacturing, however. Indeed, it’s highly likely that we’ll see IoT technology being deployed in industry-agnostic areas too, such as asset tracking or preventative and predictive...
By Michael Boevink, CEO
...There is a lot of activity around 5G standards. Tests are ongoing, and phones are in the making. One challenge with higher frequency signals is that they don’t travel as far as lower frequencies, so multiple input and output antennas (MIMOs) will need to be used to boost and multiply signals anywhere 5G is offered. The shift to 5G is that new wavelengths require completely new...
By David Reeder, VP of Global Sales & Business Development
2019 - Preparing for 5G with Real-Time, Adaptable Service Enablement
...operators who rapidly embrace the concept of an Enterprise’s ability to create on-demand network parameters for specific use cases will find themselves best positioned to capture greater Enterprise market share in the new 5G economy. The upcoming 5G networks will be truly capable of “mashing” with other cloud-deployed Web services such as ERP, web monetization...
By Greg Wester, SVP of Marketing and Business Development
Three Trends That Will Lead Us into the Fifth Era of Mobile Content Discovery
...they have data about our usage and everything we do with our phones, and they can use that data to make our mobile experiences exponentially more personalized, convenient, useful and entertaining. By owning the discoverability of tailored-to-us content, making search simpler, creating more “snackable” content experiences and increasing access...
By Paul Hughes, Director of Strategy
2019 Trends in Connection to Cloud
...in-house business models - either homegrown or supported third-party vendors - to a cloud-based as-a-service model. Look at traditional business support systems, for example, which either reside in-house or are supported by a third party via a managed services model. The next iteration is the move to the cloud, in which critical transactions infrastructure sits in the cloud...
By Anatoli Levine, Director of Products and Standards
...5G developments are advancing quickly, driven by the insatiable appetite for speed, bandwidth and full QoS/QoE spectrum of humans and machines alike. Core 5G trials are already under way around the world, but that doesn’t affect MCX at the moment. However, we expect to see some alignment of MCX technologies with 5G networks and architectures in the next 3GPP Release 16...
By Ingo Flomer, VP of Business Development & Technology
...connectivity must be robust and reliable: failures, poor coverage and outages could risk to revenues and safety. What does this mean for 2019? Whilst in the future, it’ll be 5G that facilitates the IIoT, next year we’ll see a demand from the IIoT sector for 4.5G, which can support a wide range of IoT services. 4.5G technology can co-exist with...
By Nikhil Vyakaranam, Product Marketing Manager
5 Powerful Trends That Will Redefine Networking in 2019
...companies are likely to spend substantial resources to automate their network as much as they can, to not be left behind. Manual scripting and pointed solutions will not be able to scale to match the massive increase in network demands. There will be a rise of innovative and smart network automation solutions that can manage devices, automate services...
By Ravi Rishy-Maharaj, Founder & CEO
eSIM to Take Center Stage in 2019
...as Apple and Android are making dual SIM a reality, with device manufacturers scrambling to follow suit, carriers will pivot toward customer experience as a key differentiator. Dumb pipe cellular service will transition to innovative and on-demand app experiences that put the consumer in control of their talk, text and data use...
By Fabio Belloni, Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer
Real-time Location Services: Three Predictions for 2019
...Location can be a tricky beast, and myriad factors come into play with every individual deployment. Different technologies solve different problems; there is no one-size-fits-all RTLS solution. This market demands open solutions that can work in concert to solve the location conundrum, bringing multiple technologies together to deliver...
By Jennifer Kyriakakis, Founder and VP of Marketing
Will 2019 Finally Be the Year of the Customer for Telcos?
...which vision will rule the market? Will it be the virtual operator using agility and personalization to offer compelling customer experiences or will it be the big carrier leveraging network investments to enable richer and more robust customer experiences? While it is unclear which side will become the industry norm, these dueling visions...
By Martin Koppel, CEO
Can Telcos Get Rid of Prepaid Subscribers in 2019?
...mobile operators want to have 100% of their subscribers on postpaid plans. Moving everyone from prepaid to postpaid helps to predict revenue, lowers distribution costs, reduces churn from price-based provider switching, creates growth in digital services consumption and reduces potential criminal usage of anonymous SIM cards...
By Sameh Yamany, CTO
Testing the Limits of the Network in 2019 and Beyond
...MSOs and enterprise IT teams continue to face pressures to reduce costs while meeting demands for applications and services that are always on, always available, and connected across all devices and touchpoints. As a result, the evolution to massively scalable, hybrid cloud-based networks is moving at an ever faster...
By Anupam Rastogi, Chief Architect and SVP of Technology
...CSPs are sitting on vast volumes of big data that they need to exploit to lower operational costs and to monetize their networks with completely new types of services and customer experiences. If they don’t use data-centric measures to get ahead of the game, they could be forever stuck in the pipe business, transporting bits...
By Jim Machi, VP of Marketing
Communication Trends for 2019: Heralding the Gigabit Era
...industries had been tinkering with VoIP but the recession was a real, compelling reason to change - they had to in order to save money and survive. And if in 2020 another recession occurs (as some predict), then a similar rethinking may have to occur. So “value” infrastructure will come to the fore. This is an infrastructure that...
By Bernardo Lucas, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer
Top Fraud Threats in the Gigabit Era
...when a security layer is breached, the fraud management system will be able to identify the threat and minimize any potential damage. It takes two layers, Security and Fraud Management, working hand in hand to prevent fraud in the gigabit era. Advancements in machine learning, artificial intelligence and automation will...
By Anders Liden, Innovation and Research Manager
If There’s One Arc That Will Matter in the Year Ahead, It Will Be Front and Foremost Security
...goes back to the datacenter or other techniques - is an undeniable trend that will escalate in 2019. That’s a truth not only born out of the need for performance on instances like encryption but also from a standpoint of expensive tower creation which the telcos will loathe to...
By David Walsh, Founder of Kandy Communications Cloud Solutions
Continual Cloud Communications Changes Everything
...even without machines, sometimes, you just need to speak to another live human and not just any human, the best human, the expert human. This is where we are seeing innovation through a new level of “intelligent routing” that goes beyond optimizing the network, but...
By Keith Brody, VP of Marketing
...as brands try to hold on to valuable customers. The cost of loyalty infrastructure, that has historically held brands back from launching programs, is rapidly dropping because of cloud-based, digital solutions that are ‘light touch’; add to this the interesting opportunities that...