As countries across the Asia Pacific region start to ease lockdown measures as part of post COVID-19 recovery, organisations are transitioning into the possibility of adopting semi-regular work-from-home arrangements in the new normal. While the past years have seen discussions around the massive proliferation and adoption of digital technology tools and platforms, the pandemic has proven that having reliable connectivity and bandwidth is a key propeller for businesses in the Asia Pacific region to navigate new norms as we dive deeper into a period of uncertainty.
From working from home remotely, to conducting meetings over telecommunication platforms such as Zoom and Google Hangouts, and business transactions on enterprise platforms, our dependence on telecommunications, digital technology tools and platforms has never been greater today than it has ever been before. Businesses across the Asia Pacific region are now all the more reliant on next-generation connectivity platforms to deliver better customer experiences, solve complex problems, and move their business forward.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, telco traffic has moved towards residential areas almost entirely, with the majority of the workforce across the region working from home. This has shaped a new distribution pattern, and shed light on the role of re-engineering as a critical aspect in supporting real-time bandwidth demands. It has also brought to light the criticality of traffic monitoring for cell balancing and site upgrade plans. With telco traffic dynamically shifting, telcos will continue to play a prominent role in sustaining the public’s trust, ensuring that they maintain steady operations and keep customers’ business as normal as possible.
Delivering the promises of 5G in Asia Pacific
5G and Big Data go hand-in-hand, where optimisations of the 5G network infrastructure can be enhanced through the use of data and accelerated analytics. Despite the ASEAN region possibly facing a variety of challenges to roll out and capture the maximum value from 5G, research predicts that 5G in the region could add 6 to 9 percent to consumer revenues and 18 to 22 percent to enterprise revenues by 2025. Coordinated efforts from all stakeholders - regulators, operators, and enterprises - will be required to ensure that 5G lives up to its full potential. This makes proper 5G network planning and optimisation a crucial aspect, and creates an incredible opportunity for telecom companies across the Asia Pacific region to explore real-time 5G insights and leverage 5G data analytics for 5G network optimisation, translating to fast and consistent network connectivity at all times.
With customers increasingly expecting consistent and speedy network connectivity, telecom companies across the Asia Pacific region need to pinpoint implications around the sudden surge in data traffic and decide how to optimise capacity planning to match consumer demand effectively in real time. Having real-time network analysis will allow anomalies to be spotted, and adjustment of resources to be carried out before any outages happen. Beyond spotting errors, big data and analytics can also help bring new perspectives to the table, where greater depths of analysis can be supplemented with third party crowd-sourced data. This, in turn, enables the monitoring of subjective customer experiences. This being said, being proactive with insights will give telcos in the Asia Pacific region the power to make better decisions, build better networks and possibly reduce user churn.
Growing a sustainable 5G ecosystem
As operators partner and invest in multiple areas including transmission and radio access network infrastructure, along with other equipment offering better coverage and higher frequency capabilities, we are expecting greater influx of data in the Asia Pacific region. To create a sustainable long-term 5G strategy, telcos across the Asia Pacific region should also take into consideration the key players in the ecosystem. Apart from being 5G providers, operators will need to develop and strengthen partnerships with vertical industry players amidst the rollout of the futuristic network. Cross-industry collaborations will lead to the build-up of each industry, resulting in a more cohesive telecommunications ecosystem across different trades, and areas across the globe. By leveraging analytics tools which will allow real-time insights to be churned through different layers of disparate high-volume data, industry players across the Asia Pacific region are able to have a competitive advantage: Data and analytics allow challenges to be tackled and help fuel the creation of a sustainable 5G ecosystem that helps address demands around customer experience, network optimisation, operational analytics, connected ecosystems, and effective telecommuting.
While 5G is the next generation of mobile connectivity, this will also be where challenge meets opportunity, reigniting even greater growth in enterprise and consumer markets across the Asia Pacific region with coordinated efforts and partnerships between telecom operators, regulators, and consumers.
