Enea, a leading specialist in software for telecommunications and cyber security, today announced its annual report containing insights and trends that will shape the telecom industry in 2023. Operators will continue to strive for data traffic efficiency amid fluctuating cost of energy affecting the bottom line; a focus on IoT will move from enablement to scale and profitability; and hybrid cloud data observability will become central to unlocking new machine learning and 5G use cases.
This year’s report pulls on real-world events, such as rising energy costs, global supply chain issues, and the war in Ukraine, as well as insights from ABI Research to give an overview of the telecoms landscape and what is likely to drive decision-making in the next 12 months.
The 2023 trends include:
Signaling Security: Cutting out the noise before operators are silenced by it
It is a commonly held belief in the telecoms arena that 5G has ‘security by design,’ but is that enough at a time when location tracking, call rerouting, and network hijacking are becoming tools of war? The report delves into how the signaling network layer has come under increased strain and attack from threat actors looking to infiltrate and leverage communications to their advantage, most notably in Ukraine.
Energy consumption: It’s time to offset cost as well as carbon
The telecoms sector is one of the most energy-intensive sectors in the world, and while operators have worked hard on renewables, sustainability, and carbon offsetting in recent years, geopolitical tensions are now causing energy costs to fluctuate – significantly affecting the cost of mobile networks. The report outlines how operators focus will now shift to data cost-saving, streamlining their operations with technology such as video traffic management.
IoT Cost and Profitability: The path to enlightenment
The race to enable IoT services has been run, and the hype has died down. Rather than making over-optimistic IoT investments with little guarantee of financial return, connectivity providers will instead be looking to allocate their resources in a more coordinated way, continuing to strive for market share but only in a way that maintains profitability. The report explores how vendors and operators will change their approach in 2023.
Observability: Don’t be blind to the data you need
In the modern cloud environment, data observability will be key to taking AI-driven automation to the next level, allowing 5G networks and use cases to be diversified to their fullest potential. As of 2022, observability has attracted almost $4 billion worth of venture capital investment and funding. The report looks at what observability means in a hybrid cloud environment and its role in the story of 5G in 2023.
Wireless and Wireline: Texas hold ‘em or high-stakes poker?
This year marks the first time wireless and wireline operators are competing with one another on a relatively level playing field, with both now offering competing services and vying for the same customers. The report analyzes this changing relationship in detail, looking at the competitive fight for subscribers and how convergence within the industry will change the dynamic.
“The telecoms industry is known for being innovative and resilient, and those traits will certainly serve operators well in 2023,” comments Stephanie Huf, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of ESG. “The next twelve months will be ripe with opportunity, but in order to take advantage of those opportunities, operators will need to overcome challenges relating to the aftermath of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, new and emerging cyberthreats, and soaring energy prices. But the response to these challenges will create a springboard for future gains, with data traffic optimization and the new revenue opportunities brought about by wireless and wireline convergence taking center stage.”
