Consumer-driven data consumption, fuelled by the mobile and broadband services in IoT devices, which have soared and put unprecedented pressures on networks.

Thanks to the introduction of GDPR, It has also been the year of stronger encryption practices as users, organisations and lawmakers alike became increasingly concerned about privacy and the safety of their data and infrastructure.

The landscape has changed shape as telcos pushed into the OTT space and increased their user access capabilities as well as high-profile merger activity in the sector making headline news.

The industry has made great strides in 5G development, BT is planning to have commercial 5G products launching in the UK within the next 18 months, while Deutsche Telekom has just activated a 5G New Radio (NR) Cluster in downtown Berlin, where it will use the test bed to see how next-generation networks perform in real-life situations, latching onto the DevOps movement as service providers begin to future-proof their networks for the years ahead.

In 2019 expect to see some of these trends continue to gain momentum, while fresh ones emerge and steer this industry in new directions. Specifically, here are three trends that will shape the next 12 months.

OTT and value-added services – AI exclusive

2019 is set to be another pivotal year for over-the-top (OTT) service growth, fuelled by streaming video and public demand for more non-linear media consumption.

However, with any boost in OTT adoption and consumption, further financial and infrastructure pressure will be placed on network operators.

With the advent of 5G on the horizon, 2019 is likely to see further efforts from telcos and other service providers to partner with and become primary OTT solution providers in their own right in order to bolster revenues, offset downward price pressures on last-mile connectivity and build customer loyalty.

5G

The race for 5G is on and will continue apace in 2019.

Many telcos around the world have already developed 5G architecture and initiating their field tests this year.

Across the industry, expect to see 1GB access move to 10GB and 10GB aggregation to 100GB in order to cope with 4G growth and to lay the groundwork for new 5G-bearing core networks.

There will also be increased interest in 5G research and development emerging from other industries outside the traditional telco market, including in energy, agribusiness and transportation, who all see the vast potential 5G technology presents to revolutionise the way they can deliver their goods and services.

Fuelled by consumer and business demand, carriers and governments alike are pushing the deployment forward with the ambitious goal of rolling out 5G networks more widely by 2020.

Security

It felt like not a week went by in 2018 when there wasn’t news of a data breach or a network being compromised. According to the report from EfficientIP in November, 43% of telco organisations suffered from DNS-based malware over the previous 12 months. It was also highlighted that 81% took three days or more to apply a critical security patch after notification.

Stats like this has made network operators and telcos realise that they need to protect more than just the data being transferred over their systems.

As networks become increasingly software-defined their infrastructure is as vulnerable to attacks as the bits and bytes sent through the network.

For this reason, 2018 saw more and more network operators and telcos role out business-wide encryption.

In 2019, holistic network security will become more important than ever and expect to see encryption transition from a niche play to a more pervasive technology.

New EU legislation such as the GDPR has been a significant driver behind broader adoption of encryption across networks.

This year, the data demand landscape will continue to change and with it, the underlying network infrastructure, both from a physical and virtual perspective.

Service providers will continue to realign and consolidate their offerings to maximise revenue and ensure their networks are ready to accommodate future technological advancements.

Sourced by Joe Marsella, Vice President, Global Sales Engineering, at Ciena

Fitting very well into Mobile World Congress’ ‘Intelligent Connectivity’ theme, the network based on a similar Cloud Collaboration Hubs, focusing on developing cloud-based capabilities. While artificial intelligence has been praised as one of the saviours of connectivity and a justification for 5G, the use cases are relatively simplistic, this initiative will aim to correct this.

“Network operators are eager to deploy AI to improve network operations and strengthen customer relationships,” said John Byrne, Nokia’s Service Director for Telecom Technology & Software, Global Data. “Nokia’s Cognitive Collaboration Hubs can help accelerate those plans by providing a space for operators, partners and enterprises to co-create new AI solutions utilizing a mix of data science and telco domain expertise.”

One example of these use cases is Driver Behaviour Analytics, a service which aims to analyse driver performance and road conditions. The data and insight can be offered to governments to help improve driving conditions, delivery companies to aide with logistics or insurance companies to more accurately price premiums. Such a system has already been trialled by the Dubai Police.

“Nokia Cognitive Collaboration Hubs are yet another step in the expansion of our data analytics and AI services capabilities, which are widely recognized as industry-leading,” said Dennis Lorenzin, Head of the Network Cognitive Service Unit at Nokia. “Building on our data science and telco expertise, we are helping our customers apply AI technologies to improve their operational efficiency, prepare their networks for 5G, and generate new revenues.”

This is perhaps the area where many are struggling right now; generating new revenues and creating new services for the data-driven era. The most simplistic was to implement AI is relatively obvious, buy an automated bit of software and sack the employees were roles have been made redundant, but the search for value creation is much more difficult than operational efficiency.

The use cases which are being discussed today are of course of value. Self-correcting networks which can identify difficulties will improve customer experience, as will building a profile of users to improve experience, but these are examples of improving what you already have. The reason internet companies secured the lion’s share of profits in the 4G era is because they sought to create new value and revenues which didn’t exist before. The telcos need to start doing this.

It will certainly be interesting to see the use cases which emerge from the Cognitive Collaboration Hub, but for now it serves as an excellent way for Nokia to plug itself under the increasingly popular AI buzz.