The telecommunications industry will continue to see strong growth during 2014, as well as facing demands for increased connectivity, pressure to connect BYOD devices, and a stronger focus on persistent security problems.
“The core challenge – which also presents a major growth opportunity for the sector – is the fact that users are committed to connectivity and speed,” says Andrew van Niekerk, a director of Teleforge Communications, a tier-3 voice solutions provider focused on providing carrier grade voice services to medium and large enterprises – as well as call centres.
“Developments such as BYOD are changing the communications landscape and, the more this trend continues to grow, companies have to take cognisance of this. But it does – and will – put more pressure on the infrastructures of companies, including increased bandwidth.”
The increasing prevalence of BYOD in the workplace could also act to open up more security risks in the workplace, by exposing the company to malware or other hacking techniques.
What is clear is that the ongoing expansion of the mobile environment, coupled with sustained pushes for high-bandwidth applications and services such as video and gaming, is creating a pressure cooker situation – one that screams for an increase in the availability and quality of broadband connectivity.
Because of this, carriers will continue to focus keenly on pursuing technological advancements to handle demand, including offloading some mobile bandwidth needs to Wi-Fi, which is proving an effective complement to mobile networks.
Simultaneously, long-term spectrum availability, speed and quality, small cells and continued backhaul improvements are likely to be a key focus to assure continued mobile broadband momentum.