Predictions 2020 | Telecom Fraud, Cloudification and Spectrum Innovation to Gain Momentum

Spotlight on Predictions 2020 | TelecomDrive.com

From designing strategies for managing Telecom Fraud to enabling efficient network virtualization, cloudification of networks to 5G enablement – as we move towards 2020 – we are presenting some of the key trends in the telecoms technology space that are likely to gain relevance and help operators drive more productivity from their networks.

Telcos Need to Efficiently Handle Telecom Fraud in 2020  

Arnd Baranowski, CEO, Oculeus

The SIP protocols commonly used today on communications networks have permanently exposed telcos and their business customers to telecoms fraud, specifically PBX hacking and toll fraud, and are extremely difficult to protect with the current generation of available security tools.

Fraudsters only need to gain access to a SIP-IP account to be able to freely inject fraudulent traffic under the name of the account owner. To make matters worse, the existing fraud management practices of telcos and the tools they use do not address in any way the vulnerabilities of the SIP protocol.

Solutions for protecting against telecoms fraud on SIP trunks and enterprise communications networks should be just like an antivirus software running on a PC. Our approach monitors all communications traffic running through a PBX device and uses a combination of anomaly detection and artificial intelligence to identify and block unauthorized calls without any impact on the quality of legitimate communications traffic.

The market need for our Oculeus-Protect solution is clear and the demand is growing. In the coming year, we expect to onboard several major service providers that will be offering their business customers with a PBX protection service based on Oculeus-Protect.

Edge compute and the Operationalization of NFV

Gabriel Kerner, Vice President of Product Management and Business Development, Telco Systems 

As more and more telecom operators and CSPs look at implementing NFV within their networks in the year 2020 – uCPE will gain greater prominence and importance.

uCPE is a powerful case of the NFV paradigm, providing business value in multiple aspects of a network - such as logistics and costs for CSPs, managing less devices, version control for all the products, automated and remote provisioning.

It delivers great level of flexibility of offering to business customers and provides a chance to an increased ARPU environment. uCPE enables CSPs to offer flexible bandwidth, added dedicated functions/applications and enhance their overall service management.

uCPE is also a private/initial case of edge computing, deploying new services based on networking, especially leveraging fixed-mobile convergence. Edge compute is the operationalization of NFV to provide in a decentralized manner a broad range of new functions and connectivity-centric applications.

Our NFVTime is the operating system of choice for uCPE and an important element for edge compute operationalization. The platform’s scalability and the framework it provides for efficiently managing all edge network devices and functions are driving the demand for NFVTime. In the coming year, we expect to expand on the numerous customer engagements that we began this year.

Virtualisation to Cloudification

Predictions for 2020 – Kevin Riley, CTO at Ribbon Communications

• From Virtualisation to Cloudification: We've begun transforming networks, now what? The next year will see us look to cloud-native functions with distributed clouds from the core to the edge. We’ll see the evolution of virtualisation and the even faster move to cloudification with less risk than ever before.
• From SD-WAN to SDN: SD-WANs are a transitional technology. New paradigms are emerging, flattening networks and simplifying them, designing them using software (rather than having to engineer them in traditional terms), and managing them with point-and click secure portals that will enable provisioning of endpoints in minutes.
• Addressing challenges at the far edge of the network: 5G deployments have begun, but have we fully considered and solved security, increased traffic and performance at the edge? 2020 will see developments in helping us do that
• The rise of automated systems in the RTC world: how analytics, machine-learning and artificial intelligence will be deployed to make networks and applications more secure, efficient and profitable via better customer experiences.
• From smart homes to smart buildings, from smart factories to smart cities: we’ll see a lot of practical innovations changing how we live and improve our lives.
• Beyond contact centres. The real game in 2020 will be putting customer choice at the centre of customer experience. We’ll see the evolution from "contact centres" to “customer experience centres"
• Why SBCs will never be the same: There is no turning back from SBC-as-a-Service (SBCaaS) and that's great news for businesses of every size
• Unified Communications is about to turn an important corner: We’ll see UCaaS adoption rates soar in 2020. We’ll also see communications platforms move beyond experimentation and proof of concept in 2020
• Living on the Edge: We’ll see security that scales and enables real time applications that soar (the new voice security stack). With the proliferation of devices, from smartphones to smart doorbells and connected cars that come with broadband built in, there is limitless opportunity for creative innovation.
• Aren’t those Robocalls annoying? In 2020 we’ll see network intelligence and applications to help fight this rising menace.

5G indoor coverage will gather momentum

Ingo Flomer, VP Business Development and Technology, Cobham Wireless

For many building owners, there’s currently not the financial incentive to create the kind of 5G user experience touted by the press. Most of us are happy today with the performance we receive when using our phones, or else don’t really give it a second thought. This will change when 5G devices become more affordable and more widespread, and new 5G uses cases are developed. This means building owners will have to be ready.

In 2020, building owners will request that current wireless coverage systems be easily upgradeable to 5G. This offers the perfect, cost-effective solution. Venue owners and operators want longevity and ROI for purchases; what they don’t want is to have to buy a whole new system in a year or two, as demand for 5G in-building coverage grows.

From a technical standpoint, upgrading platforms to 5G will mean wider frequency bands (e.g. 400MHz in band 3.5). I expect 3.5GHz to be in most indoor environments, however, this will not increase coverage: 3.5GHz is all about boosting capacity. Ethernet-based protocols will be used in order to increase data transport efficiency, supporting the transport of more RF on the same digital bandwidth.

Innovation in spectrum will enable the rise of new 5G players

Angela Logothetis, CTO of Amdocs Open Network

As incumbent communication service providers (CSPs) move to 5G, they will need more – and a broader range – of spectrum ranging from low to high band. In 2020, we will see innovation in spectrum to deal with this demand. Expect to see billions of dollars spent in spectrum auctions, as operators learn where and how to best use spectrum such as mmWave to deploy technologies that increase efficiency and support "re-farmed" spectrum.

5G will also see new, disruptive players entering the market in smart cities, IoT devices and private networks. All these new players will also require spectrum, driving innovation in regulation and allocation. Multiple countries, including the USA, Japan, Germany and the UK are already regulating bands of spectrums to be available through shared and priority access, and to be dedicated to enterprise applications.

But in 2020, as 5G begins to takes hold, this will encourage innovation, disruption, and competition in that market. Traditional CSPs will evolve to open cloud networks, network sharing, network slicing and new spectrum to attain the cost structures, agility and innovation to compete in 5G. 

Huawei, Nokia and Ericsson will lose out to Open-minded vendors

Steve Papa, CEO at Parallel Wireless

The traditional RAN vendors – such as Huawei, Nokia and Ericsson – risk becoming outdated in networks that are demanding openness and flexibility. The closed nature of their technology means that operators are unable to use multiple vendors in their networks, which means it is very difficult and expensive to adapt and upgrade the technology once it’s been deployed.

As we enter the 5G era, this traditional, closed model for building the RAN is no longer sustainable. In developed markets, the race to deliver 5G is in full swing and operators are spending considerable amounts building out their next generation networks. They need a new approach that will allow them to deploy and cost-effectively run 5G technology efficiently alongside their 2G, 3G an 4G networks.

2019 saw significant moves towards OpenRAN, illustrated by Vodafone’s announcement that it would be opening its entire RAN in Europe to OpenRAN vendors during TIP Summit. In 2020, the momentum behind OpenRAN will continue to grow as other operators realise it can help them reduce costs, drive more competition between technology vendors, and stimulate higher levels of innovation in the industry.

People and ‘things’ on the move will drive 5G roaming – and drive operator revenues

Mikaël Schachne, CMO and VP Mobility and IoT Business, BICS

2020 will be (another!) 5G-focused year; we’ll see more 5G roaming trials, fuelled by both consumer and business use cases, enabling next generation connectivity to go global. During the summer this year, we reported that data roaming traffic across Asia had surged by 245% over the 12 months to June; an uplift driven in large part by increased adoption of roaming, new tariffs plans, travel SIMs and IoT devices across the continent.

This isn’t limited to Asia; we also found that Q1 2019 outbound roaming traffic from Asia to Europe and the Middle East increased by 88% compared to Q1 2018; and inbound roaming volumes from the same regions grew by 81%. As 5G adoption increases, 5G roaming traffic will follow a similar pattern, and surge on an international scale.

Subscribers are enjoying more international travel and expecting the same quality of service wherever they are. Sectors like the connected automotive industry and consumer electronics, on the other hand, will become increasingly reliant on cross-border, ultra-reliable, low-latency connectivity.

Monetising 5G roaming will be a priority for operators, and the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) will present a means of doing just that. Companies operating in the IIoT have the funds and financial incentive to invest in and pay for 5G connectivity and, as many have a global footprint, will also be able to invest in and pay for 5G roaming.

We’ll see the IIoT benefit from remote tracking, robotics, efficiencies in productivity and project management, and automation, while operators can unlock a major revenue opportunity and continue to monetise a core part of their service offering.

Confluence of IoT, AI and Cloud

Sai Pratyush, Additional Vice President - Product Marketing – ICS, Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL)

In the enterprise segment, we are witnessing a significant growth in adoption of these new age technologies such as IoT, AI and Cloud across industries. IoT especially, is viewed as a key enabler driving digital transformation to unlock operational efficiencies. AI coupled with ubiquitous connectivity is enabling exponential value being generated by IoT.

AI is seeing large scale adoption by enterprises owing to its power to aid automation, speed and better decision making. Further, the flexibility of this new technology has made it convenient and affordable for SMEs to implement it quickly. Apart from driving growth and profitability, companies are using these modern-day technologies to diversify their business and are launching digital products that complement their traditional product portfolio.

We are working with partners to roll out a robust Cloud & SaaS portfolio for our Customers. TTBS already has an IoT practice focused on Location Based Services like Fleet Management, Asset Tracking, Workforce Tracking, Fuel Monitoring among others. We believe the IoT market will grow exponentially in 2020 and we will continue to strengthen our IoT services as per our customers’ requirements.