Challenges Facing the Global Telecom Industry

Are Telcos Facing a Kodak Moment? In 1975, an engineer at Kodak built the world’s first digital camera. The prototype worked. It saved images to tape. It was fast and silent. But Kodak shelved it. The leadership feared it would threaten their film business. They saw the technology, but not the shift in value. By 2012, Kodak had filed for bankruptcy. Not because the world stopped taking photos, but because the meaning of “photography” had moved somewhere else. Telcos may be at similar risk.... Six converging forces are reshaping the role of connectivity in the digital economy, putting pressure on the relevance of traditional telecoms. First, the mass adoption of eSIM is eliminating switching friction. With over 600 million devices already active and most new smartphones going embedded-only by 2026, the user no longer chooses a telco—they tap a setting. Second, satellite-to-device connectivity is becoming commercially viable. AST SpaceMobile, Lynk, and others are entering direct service. Coverage is no longer tied to tower density. Third, digital platforms are absorbing the customer relationship. Retail, banking, and app ecosystems now bundle connectivity as a feature. The telco brand is disappearing from the experience. Fourth, regulatory frameworks are promoting open access and neutral hosts, further weakening exclusive operator advantages. Fifth, ARPU is flat, Capex is rising, and margin pressure constrains reinvention. Sixth, user expectations have shifted. Growth belongs to those offering simplicity, transparency, and control. Telcos have two strategic paths: become digital-native brands or evolve into automated network platforms. There is little space between. Infrastructure may remain. But relevance must be re-earned.

The Telecom Industry in Transformation: Reflecting on three key challenges: Digitalisation and evolving consumer needs are transforming many sectors, with the telecom industry being no exception. In response to this dynamic landscape, I would like to share three technology challenges the telco industry must engage with over the coming years:   1) EMBRACING THE CLOUD: The development of cloud-native services for telecom functions such as voice and data is a huge challenge. This involves refactoring our traditional network hardware and monolithic telephony systems, moving everything into the cloud, and changing to devops working models. The payoff? Flexibility, faster service updates, resiliance, and the facilitation of personalised interaction options for our clients. Yet, we must overcome many transformation hurdles. The implementation of virtualisation and automation technologies requires a complete update of our network architecture, new product versions from our vendors, as well as a lot of skill and competency changes for our employees.   2) NAVIGATING THE AI WAVE The advent of #GenAI provides the telecom industry with an array of tools and services. AI can enhance efficiency across numerous areas from chatbots, AI-assisted call center agents, hyper-personalized marketing strategies, to optimized network maintenance. However, beyond efficiency, AI also holds the potential to introduce innovative services benefiting the end customer. Trust, privacy, and transparent handling of customer data are key to the acceptance of these new features.   3) ENSURING TRUST AND SECURITY The potentially most significant challenge ahead is maintaining robust security and customer trust. With hundredthousands of cyber attacks per month on our own Swisscom infrastructure and projected global damage from cyberattacks reaching USD 10 trillion per annum by 2025, security is paramount. In the future, trust-based innovation will be the competitive edge for telecoms and IT service providers. Earning trust is an ongoing, hard-pressed task that cannot be simply bought or created through marketing campaigns.   Achieving these challenges will require one crucial element - our employees. Developing the right skill set and a supportive corporate culture is key to handling such transformative pressures.   What challenges do you see for the telecom industry? How are these mirrored in your field? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Swisscom #TelecomIndustry #Transformation #CloudTechnology #CyberSecurity #InnovatorsOfTrust 

UNDERSEA CABLES - GLOBAL TELECOM's AT RISK / DIVERSIFICATION IS CRITICAL - New paper urges urgent rethink of submarine cable dependence - A newly published paper by Dr. Asaf Tzachor, Dean of Reichman University's School of Sustainability, warns that the backbone of our global internet infrastructure—submarine communication cables—is dangerously vulnerable to both natural disasters and deliberate sabotage, posing systemic risks to international communication, commerce, and security. - "The world's overreliance on a uniform submarine cable network is a textbook case of a progress trap," says Dr. Tzachor. "While cables have enabled a connected planet, they also represent a fragile chokepoint in global communications." - Published in Nature Electronics, the study details the growing vulnerability of submarine cables—which transmit over 95% of the world's international data—to both natural and man-made hazards. (Diversifying global communications beyond submarine cables - https://lnkd.in/eMbRkfyi) - More recently, in just the past 18 months, a spate of incidents has exposed the system's fragility. Submarine cables in the Red Sea, Baltic Sea, and Pacific have been damaged—some likely the result of deliberate sabotage—disrupting data flows across continents and underscoring the risks of relying on a single, vulnerable communications backbone. - Accidental damage from ship anchors and deep-sea trawlers causes frequent disruptions, while the growing trend of targeted cable sabotage by state and non-state actors raises the specter of intentional, high-impact blackouts. - If left unaddressed, these compounding vulnerabilities could cascade into large-scale communications failures with serious consequences. - From ocean floor to stratosphere and space: A new vision Dr. Tzachor lays out an ambitious yet scientifically grounded roadmap for diversifying global communications infrastructure beyond the ocean floor. He envisions three alternative systems that, while at varying stages of maturity, could together reduce our overreliance on vulnerable submarine cables. - The first is satellite-based laser communication networks. - The second solution takes to the skies. - The third approach dives below the surface. - But technology alone won't secure the future of global communications. The paper calls for coordinated public–private action on a scale not seen since the rise of the semiconductor industry. Governments must step up with targeted funding, policy reform, and international agreements. That includes incentivizing research into alternative communications, setting clear standards for space-debris mitigation and orbital traffic management, and aligning frequency, airspace, and oceanic regulations across borders. - "Cable redundancy isn't enough. We need genuine diversification of the global digital infrastructure if we're to withstand 21st-century threats—from geohazards to geopolitical conflict," says Tzachor.

Personally, I’ve always been intrigued by the ever-evolving nature of the telecom industry—and right now, I see some fascinating trends from these intelligent service orchestrators of a connected world. Across major players globally, strategies look different, but they all circle back to one truth: customer stickiness beats infrastructure. Telecom strategy is splitting in two directions—price disruption on one side, ecosystem lock-in on the other. In the UK, ultra-low-cost mobile offers are reshaping competitive dynamics. The playbook is clear: attract price-sensitive customers, build volume fast, lock them into an ecosystem, and upsell later. Cheap isn’t just about price—it’s about creating competitive pressure. When one player goes low, others must follow or risk losing share. The bet? Getting customers in the door matters more than immediate margin. The real money comes later—from upgrades, bundles, and loyalty. Across the Atlantic, the story looks different. Recent quarterly results show integrated fiber-mobile strategies adding hundreds of thousands of subscribers, while aggressive expansion models are driving near double-digit service revenue growth. Some operators are doubling down on cost discipline and cultural resets; others are weaving connectivity into a single experience to lock in households. Different tactics, same truth: customer stickiness beats infrastructure. The telecom wars aren’t about towers anymore—they’re about ecosystems, experience, and speed. From a CTIO strategy perspective, this shift demands decisive action: - Rethink architecture for rapid onboarding at scale - Drive seamless integration across connectivity, cloud, and digital services - Embed predictive analytics to anticipate churn and optimize pricing - Automate operations without sacrificing experience And here’s where AI becomes the lever for growth and margin protection: Predictive AI to forecast churn and dynamically adjust offers Conversational AI to handle high-volume, low-margin support efficiently Generative AI to accelerate marketing and upsell campaigns AI-driven orchestration to manage complex multi-service bundles intelligently The winners will master both—value upfront and intelligence over time. #TelecomStrategy #AIinBusiness Kosha Majmundar Julia von Praveen Shankar

MWC's Hidden Story: The Battle for Control in AI's Mobile Future Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona revealed an industry at a crossroads. While AI dominated every conversation and demo, a quiet anxiety permeated the event as carriers confronted a familiar threat—becoming mere utilities while others capture the AI revolution's true value. Will this be telecom's second missed opportunity? Mobile network providers still bear the scars of the first mobile revolution. After building the critical infrastructure that enabled the app economy post-iPhone 2007, they watched helplessly as companies like Meta, Amazon, and Netflix reaped the rewards. Now, as AI reshapes the digital landscape, history threatens to repeat itself with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google positioned to capture the windfall. Handset manufacturers and chipmakers present a more compelling vision for AI integration. Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm envision AI becoming the new mobile interface—a multimodal assistant using voice, text, and camera inputs to operate across apps without constant cloud connectivity. AI will have to be hybrid, not everything is going to the cloud. We are going to be able to do lots of things using Gen AI without pinging the cloud. This approach delivers advantages in privacy, personalization, and offline functionality—though ironically, this "AI on the edge" trend doesn't benefit the network carriers. Structural Challenges Telecom operators face significant obstacles in leveraging AI effectively. Complex data management, legacy system integration, and workforce skill gaps complicate their AI adoption journey. While generative AI offers promising applications in customer experience enhancement, predictive maintenance, and fraud detection—potentially reducing resolution times by 50% and network downtime by 20%—carriers struggle to differentiate their AI offerings. The future requires telecoms to move beyond merely providing connectivity to become true innovators in the AI ecosystem. Significant investments and strategic partnerships with tech giants will be crucial for remaining relevant as the distinction between hardware, software, and networks continues to blur. For now, the hardware makers appear better positioned than the networks that connect them in the race to capture AI's transformative value. Thoughts?

 Telecom industry is a favorite traget of threat actors. Who better than Nokia to capture trends in their 2025 Threat Intelligence Report? A must-read for those at Telco as well as those in defender and CTI roles? Key Takeaways - Over 63% of surveyed operators faced at least one “living off the land” attack last year, and 32% saw four or more, reinforcing that stealthy techniques are now a persistent reality in telecom networks. - Human factors still drive the majority of high-cost breaches. 59% are caused by human error or insider activity, yet fewer than one-third of decision makers view training gaps as a major challenge. - Targeted malware is growing: 55% of operators report threats adapted to telecom infrastructure, and 45.1% have faced custom-built toolkits - Recovery times are slow: 63% of major incidents take more than a week to fully recover -  76% of vulnerabilities stem from missing patches. - Residential proxy botnets now include over 100 million compromised endpoints, enabling terabit-scale floods. 52% of DDoS campaigns now target multiple hosts simultaneously, 58% of them utilize multiple attack vectors, and 78% are completed within five minutes (37% within two minutes). - By 2028, over half of telecom operators expect to run highly or fully autonomous SOCs.

𝐃𝐢𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐦𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 77.5 𝐞𝐱𝐚𝐛𝐲𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐲 2027? This explosion of data presents both a challenge and a massive opportunity for telecommunication companies. But are they equipped to handle it? The telecommunications industry is undergoing a seismic shift. Why should you care? Because this transformation impacts how we connect, communicate, and experience the digital world. A recent study showed that poor network performance can lead to a 30% increase in customer churn. 👉 In today's hyper-connected world, customer expectations are higher than ever, and telcos need to leverage data to stay ahead of the curve. 👉 Traditional data management systems struggle to keep pace with the sheer volume, velocity, and variety of data generated by modern telecom networks. Sifting through massive datasets to gain actionable insights is like finding a needle in a haystack. 👉 This makes it difficult to optimize network performance, personalize customer experiences, and develop innovative new services. Telcos need a new approach to data management to unlock the true potential of their data. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧? 👉 Deutsche Telekom, one of the world's leading telecommunications providers, is leading the charge by designing the telco of tomorrow with BigQuery. 👉 By leveraging BigQuery's powerful data warehousing and analytics capabilities, Deutsche Telekom is able to ingest and analyze massive datasets in real time. This enables them to gain valuable insights into network performance, customer behavior, and market trends. 👉 They can now proactively identify and resolve network issues, personalize offers and services for individual customers, and develop new revenue streams. 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬: 👉 Real-time Insights: BigQuery enables real-time analysis of massive datasets, allowing telcos to react quickly to changing network conditions & customer needs. 👉 Improved Customer Experience: By understanding customer behavior and preferences, telcos can personalize services and offers, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. 👉 Innovation & Growth: Access to rich data insights empowers telcos to develop innovative new services & explore new business models. 👉 Scalability & Flexibility: Cloud-based solutions like BigQuery offer the scalability and flexibility needed to handle the ever-growing data demands of the telecommunications industry. This journey highlights the transformative power of data in the telecommunications industry. By embracing cloud-based data solutions, telcos can unlock valuable insights, improve customer experiences & drive innovation. The future of telecom is data-driven, and companies that embrace this reality will be the leaders of tomorrow. Follow Omkar Sawant for more. #telecommunications #bigdata #cloud #digitaltransformation #datanalytics

As 5G expands our digital connectivity, the security surface grows wider too, urging a smarter, more adaptive approach to protect both personal and critical infrastructures from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. The shift to 5G networks is redefining the security landscape, exposing telecom infrastructures to a broader spectrum of threats across various sectors. In consumer services, risks like call record theft, fraud, and privacy breaches are rising due to the increased data flow. Industrial applications face critical challenges such as supply chain shutdowns and production disruptions triggered by cyberattacks. Meanwhile, the proliferation of IoT devices intensifies the dangers of identity theft and device hijacking. For critical society services, including healthcare, the consequences of data manipulation and privacy violations could directly impact lives, demanding stronger regulatory frameworks and proactive defense strategies. #5G #5GSecurity #CyberThreats #Telecom #IoT #CSPs #DigitalTransformation

👉GSMA has just published a whitepaper describing the evolutionary path and growing challenges posed by mobile network #CommunicationServices. 👍 From Telefónica Global CTIO, we have led its development. Congratulations to the teams who contributed to making it possible (Alexandre Harmand, David Moro, Pedro Jose Gutierrez Rodriguez, among others.)!!! 📌Current context in which the use of traditional voice calls is declining. We are also facing challenges in implementing services such as #ViLTE and #IMS Data Channel due to the lack of universal support in devices and operating systems. 💡The report highlights the need for a clear strategy to enable operators to generate incremental revenue and justify investments in advanced networks and services. The document presents examples of next-generation services, such as intelligent translation, #augmented reality calls, and #interactive business services, which transform traditional calls into more enriching and interactive experiences. ❗️These new services depend on the adoption of technologies such as the IMS Data Channel and require collaboration between device manufacturers, software developers, and operators to build a robust ecosystem. Finally, the document proposes an approach to ensure interoperability, security, and quality of services in 6G, including universal certifications and standards. It also emphasizes the importance of removing barriers to the adoption of advanced services, such as automatic configuration provisioning and the deployment of networks that support artificial intelligence capabilities. This would allow operators to monetize their investments and offer innovative services that respond to the future needs of users. Do not miss it!!! (in comments)

Telecom builds the road. Others collect the toll. Telecom invests billions in spectrum, fiber, sites, and energy. The return? Regulated margins and constant cost pressure. Meanwhile: 🚀 Platforms monetize usage 🚀 Cloud monetizes scale 🚀 Apps monetize attention All of them ride on networks they don’t own. This isn’t a failure of execution. It’s a structural value-capture problem. Connectivity is priced like a commodity, while everything built on top is priced as a service. Until telecom moves closer to: 👉 service ownership 👉 platform thinking 👉 ecosystem control it will keep financing other people’s growth. The real question is no longer how fast networks are built — but who owns the economics of what runs on them. #Telecom #DigitalEconomy #ValueCapture #PlatformEconomy #FutureOfTelecom