Telco’s future lies in data, Internet-based networks
Report: Mobile devices are entertainment tools in digital lifestyle
Paradis
More people are shifting from the traditional voice to wireless, Internet-based telecommunications services as the world enters a digital lifestyle era, a new report by Canada-based global telecom research and consulting company Hot Telecom showed.
Isabelle Paradis, Hot Telecom president, said voice services still bring in the revenues and traffic is still growing, but “not very fast.”
“Voice is not dead…yet,” she told delegates to the 11th Asian Carriers Conference on Tuesday at the Shangri-la Mactan.
“But it’s (voice traffic) growing at a slower pace,” she added.
Citing the second edition of her company’s “The Future of International Carriers” report that was released on Tuesday, Paradis said international voice traffic is projected to grow at a slow pace of 2.1 percent in the next six years.
In Asia, she said voice traffic is seen to grow at 3.5 percent in the same period.
She attributed the low single-digit growth rates to the increasing use of wireless Internet-based and data services, which has created a complete shift in the telecoms industry and spawned the need to “create new technologies, new services, new competitors and new requirements.”
“What’s good enough before doesn’t work anymore,” she said.
In a digital lifestyle era, Paradis said voice and even SMS (short messaging service) or text services are going down while data, digital content and the Internet of Things are going up.
What do end-users want now?
“We want everything wireless. We want everything IP (Internet protocol). We want everything data,” she said. Consumers want to have all this anywhere at any time on their devices, she added.
Paradis said smartphones, computer tablets and other mobile devices are no longer seen simply as communication tools, but entertainment tools as well.
“So we see them as devices that enable us to view the content that we want to consume – the video, TV, music and so on,” she said.
The mobile device not only enables people to communicate, but it also entertains and controls people’s lifestyles.
Telecoms carriers may consider this an opportunity outside their comfort zone, but Paradis said this is worth exploring if carriers and telcos want to thrive and survive.
The Hot Telecom report discusses global trends that shape the telecommunications industry as well as growth drivers, traffic and revenue forecasts to 2020 for voice, messaging, data roaming and Internet-based services.
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