Digital disruption in Telecom sector

Digital disruption has turned the telecom industry upside down. New digital technologies are entering the market forcing telecom operators to adapt to new business models.

We went from analog to digital few decades back and then GPRS, Edge & came 3G, which brought data and web services to us. With 4G and smartphones now customers have the power of the supercomputer at their fingertips.

After iPhone, smartphones are penetrating deeper in many countries. Carriers now have to focus on customer churn more than on acquiring new ones. Today telecom operators are leveraging big data technologies to analyze call pattern data to better understand their customers’ habits and predict their requirements and thus offer better services at right time and price.

Operators are using analytics to identify customers at risk of default in bill payments and optimize their outreach for higher collection.

Today with so many disrupters, telecom companies have to think of survival. SMS or text message & MMS were some of the core services just a few years back, and then came WhatsApp, which changed all the communication paradigms. Further Skype, Viber, WeChat have entered the market to pressure the prices down for text and voice.

With the digital age, telecom companies have to:

·         Add new services to capture consumer’s attention

·         Accelerate time to market these new services with technology advancements

·         Map end-to-end customer journeys  from acquisition, engagement, retention

·         Use Big Data Analytics to focused market segmentation and hyper-personalization

·         Automate customer care and digital self-service options

·         Revamp website and give customers access to personalized information, offers and buying options

Leaders like Vodafone, Verizon, AT&T have leveraged all the digital technologies to reach out to their customers in a most efficient way.

Digital payments via mobile wallets have become a boon for telecom, as mobile payments are generating tons of Big Data on shopping behavior & preferences, enabling more sales opportunities via targeted marketing

Many technology players such as Apple, Samsung, and Google are collaborating with telecom players to make consumer’s life easy.

A good customer experience is now essential with help of digital. We live in a time when convenience, personalization, and speed are the bare minimum people expect and telecom companies have to take aggressive measures to exceed these expectations.