In her presentation at MWC 2023 (Mobile World Congress), Christel Heydemann, CEO of Orange, cited the results of PwC’s survey, which says 46 percent of CEOs in the telecommunication sector do not think their companies will exist in 10 years or so.

According to Jamie Jefferies, telecom carriers have changed with supertrends. The further development of the internet in the upcoming period is cloud technology, smart network technology and artificial intelligence. Mobile network operators will have to adapt to the new circumstances and try to exploit technological trends.

Telecom carriers can appear or disappear, but the demand for bandwidth will still exist. The CEO of AT&T believes that demand for bandwidth will grow by 30 percent per annum.

Regarding the big changes in the world’s telecommunication sector in 2024, Jefferies said the supertrends can be classified into three major groups. First, AI. People and businesses will use AI to improve business performance and forecast capability, thus speeding up decision-making. This will help cut costs, improve security capability and create better understanding about the business environment.

The second supertrend is cloud networking. Businesses will put their data in clouds, which will create high demand for networking, data centers and data distribution regime. Core data centers will see a gradual transition process, and will be used for apps with demand for low latency, such as virtual reality.

Third, new firms will exploit and use all available technologies to create new apps and users’ experiences. However, these are just the tip of the iceberg.

Vietnam’s mobile network operators are shifting into technology firms and this is a growing trend in the world. Telecom carriers in recent years have invested in companies with the business fields close to their core business: for example, content production, media, automation and automobile, or in business fields that require analyses.

However, many companies have paid attention to their initial core business activities –  running networks. The networks have become fundamental infrastructure to support digital apps of the economy and enterprises.

Many countries have decided to develop 5G apps that serve the digital transformation of industries and Vietnam can learn from them.

Jamie Jefferies said that Vietnam’s mobile network operators can classify 5G apps in accordance with the sectors of manufacturing, finance, retail and banking, from which many scenarios for using 5G can be designed, such as a safe transmission line for the government and traffic management.

In the healthcare sector, the scenarios will relate to big-sized data transmission which needs high-speed transmission lines with low latency. 

In agriculture, these could be apps related to agricultural analyses and information about crops. In the entertainment industry and content, when a big sports event occurs, apps will be needed to help telecommunication networks adjust and deal with a sudden traffic increase in crowded areas. 

Asked by VietNamNet what Vietnam needs to do to accelerate the birth of 5G apps, the expert said creating more scenarios for using 5G is the challenge that many countries face when governments promote new networking technologies with high speed and capacity.

Together with 5G deployment, network operators will have to create a plan to use technology and harmonize revenue from subscribers and the capability to earn revenue from other usage cases.

The government can play a role in the story by applying solutions to promote and support businesses to develop 5G apps themselves. The solutions could be tax remissions, and encouragement to invest and develop network operating capabilities and skills.

Regarding the standards for 5G quality, he thinks that Vietnam can consider operating an open environment with many suppliers. The government can set standards to ensure the high quality of networks, capable of expanding and operating at low costs.

Trong Dat