It’s hard to believe it’s been 21 years since the launch of 3G in the UK, and this year will see its decommissioning by the majority of UK mobile network operators (MNOs). In that time our telecoms ecosystem has evolved massively, from traditional MNO-led innovation to now including collaboration across multiple tech organisations, standards bodies, hyperscalers, vendors and other connectivity providers to bring products and services to market. We’ve seen 4G and 5G introduced and growth in new ways of providing connectivity, such as via neutral hosts. Counter intuitively, with more parties involved innovation complexity increases whilst time to market has to decrease to stay relevant to market demands. The development of cutting-edge products for both consumers and enterprises in the future will see this collaborative approach continue. So what could 2024 hold for the industry as a whole?
#1: Open RAN comes of age?
Last year closed with the news of AT&T's US$14bn open RAN deal with Ericsson in December 2023. This deal represents a huge global investment in open RAN development and AT&T says it plans for 70 percent of its wireless network traffic to flow across open standard compliant platforms by late 2026.
Closer to home in the UK, I think there will be a lot more commercial experimentation using open RAN for in-building connectivity, campus connectivity and private networks. We’ve been involved in testing open RAN products with our partners for a number of years now. But in order for us to move this out of the lab and into our customers’ premises, whether trading floors or hospitals, we need absolute confidence that it will deliver reliably. We’re now moving in the direction where more commercial experimentation may happen in market, ultimately ensuring that open RAN will deliver the mobile service availability our customers demand and need.
#2: Security is the name of the game
In the UK, after several years of preparations 2024 will see two important pieces of security legislation take effect. The Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021 (TSA) introduces new duties on providers of public electronic communications networks and services to identify and reduce the risk of security compromises and prepare our telecoms architecture to ensure any such issues are minimised. The earliest set of security controls are required to be in place by 31st March 2024. Compliance timeframes will depend on which tier the telecom provider falls into based on their commercial scale.
There is also the full regime of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act 2022, which is aimed at tackling cybersecurity and privacy vulnerabilities in consumer-connected devices and will commence on 29th April 2024.
Mobile technology has been at the forefront of adopting and adapting technology and has long had security at its heart – after all, the SIM card has been around for over 30 years now with encryption included from 2G onwards. I vaguely recall because the West Germans didn’t want the East Germans snooping! But then I’m probably just showing my age. We trust this encryption and these Acts ensure that we will be able to continue to trust it.
As a partner to the UK MNOs and others in the telecoms ecosystem, we’ve spent a lot of time ensuring that we comply with all the necessary security legislation. I’m actually a huge fan of the security approach and believe the UK is one of the leaders in this area. But 2024 is certainly not the year the work ends. The next four years will bring work on a sequence of technical, architectural, contractual and commercial controls to continue strengthening security. And in turn our customers can be reassured that we’re National Cyber Security Centre compliant.
#3: ESG will continue to be important
The global significance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles has reshaped decision-making processes across industries, including telecoms.
All our customers, whether an office, campus, hospital or stadium, seek our advice in providing telecoms solutions that can support their own ESG strategies. Designing the solution to meet the business and environment provides plenty of opportunity to help our customers, using time of day transmission, capacity when needed and open RAN products.
The neutral host approach means that we can host multiple MNOs using the same physical network architecture, minimising build and power usage and using the most energy efficient product for their needs.
Customers are already asking how we can support them in achieving their ESG targets and this is only going to become more of a priority this year.
#4: AI as a tool for growth
Security and ESG are both important but the fact is that meeting requirements across these areas adds to the workloads of engineers and means less time for other tasks. AI is of course the hot topic at the moment in the tech space, and while I think that the next year will see it implemented more in business process improvements, such as procurement, supply chain automation and transactional alarm clearing, it’s not going to help radio engineers do radio planning for the whole country in the next year or two. That said I do believe that the engineers of the future will use AI as a co-pilot in the way my generation of engineers used spreadsheets.
AI does immediately open up the possibility of improvement in something that the telco industry has long struggled with – attracting young people to the industry. It’s no secret that telecoms is made up of an aging workforce; 60% of the engineers in the UK are over the age of 50. And we need to attract the next generation of the best and brightest if we’re going to continue to make the most of technological advancements.
AI-driven tools and platforms in telecoms showcase the industry as forward-thinking and technologically advanced, appealing to tech-savvy young professionals. It offers opportunities for training and upskilling in areas like machine learning, data analytics and automation, which are in demand from the younger generation. And it encourages a culture of innovation and creativity, attracting those who are eager to drive industry advancements.
So I’m very excited about the impact that it will have this year in helping to show what an exciting and rewarding industry telecoms is and why more people should consider it when thinking about their future careers.
