2024 in Telco: How Did Innovation Match Up to Expectations?

From artificial intelligence to connectivity, and the environmental impact of business to new operational models, a lot has changed in telecommunications in 2024. Experts in the field expected a great deal in the past 12 months, but which 2024 telecom predictions came true?

The era of AI has arrived

Artificial intelligence in telco was always going to be an area of intense interest and development in 2024. Primarily, we have seen the expected paradigm shift in generative AI – with a completely new approach to the concept of human-machine interfaces. The new generation of AI is based on machine-based analysis of user intention, voice prompts, and natural language processing. Furthermore, language models have become increasingly specialized, with systems built and maintained by human experts to improve accuracy and efficiency.

Generative AI has also brought significant advances to self-managed networks, with AI being used to detect events and develop appropriate references for related actions. This has made AI in self-managed networks not only more secure, but more cost-effective too. However, it should be remembered that this is still a time of pioneering installations gathering experience from people and building a knowledge base through AI.

In fact, AI has gone further in 2024. Just as experts predicted, it has reshaped the telecom landscape and driven operators to embrace the evolution from telco to techco. This has been seen in the use of AI-related telecommunications processes such as demand analysis, optimization of network operations, optimization and security of networks based on machine learning, customer service using bots and virtual assistants, automation of business processes, attitude and sentiment analysis, and personalization of services. While it is true that the advance of AI has increased the level of digital threats in telecommunications, it is also being used to address those risks through data analysis, anomaly detection in “customer” behavior, and threat identification.

A new age of connectivity

Much as experts predicted, 2024 saw great interest in the development of non-terrestrial networks for telecommunications. Primarily a means of keeping communication channels open in the event of conflict or natural disaster, recent years have seen satellite networks being developed on a more commercial basis for everyday customers. While not yet fully mainstream, it is expected that non-terrestrial networks will further develop in the near future – bringing greater efficiency (and more affordability).

Meanwhile, on Earth…. connectivity has also undergone change with the expected increase of eSIM use. Thanks to the GSMA’s new SGP 32 standard, published a year earlier, 2024 has seen new use cases for eSIMs in the IoT consumer sector. These have included unified interfaces, the ability to configure eSIMs at any time, and new, lightweight protocols for transferring configurations.

Finally, 2024 has brought some development (although perhaps not as much as expected) in the field of all-photonics networks for connectivity. In addition to the security element, such networks are highly resistant to interference, have high network capacities, ultra-fast data transmission, low latency transmission.

The dawn of a greener future

The arrival of 5G and rapid expansion of the IoT in telecommunications and many other industries have brought a massive increase in energy consumption. Indeed, telcos are among the largest consumers of electricity. With this in mind (and for economic reasons), it was expected that operators would seek to reduce their usage – and this is just what they have done.

In fact, we’ve seen great focus on optimizing and increasing efficiency, something that companies such as Comarch have been expecting for some time. This goes beyond simple redesign of equipment to make it more energy efficient; we are seeing operators take a new approach to energy consumption by introducing dynamically managed control parameters that allow network elements such as cell towers to be monitored constantly, and turned on or off according to demand. These systems, of course, rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning, which significantly reduces the workload and time required to apply changes in systems and brings costs down.

Focus on virtualization and optimization

Virtual network functions are nothing new, but 2024 brought the expected focus on greater and more innovative virtualization for many network elements. The result has been the increasing trend of migrating network functions to the cloud, making it easier not just to reduce network and energy costs, but also to share such elements.

The increasingly popular Open Virtual RAN Architecture has played a key role in this process, as virtual network functions will be used to instantiate network elements and the scalability of the system.

Additionally, cloud providers already have the resources to meet network availability and reliability requirements, while providing a cluster of edge servers in a single location that can serve as radio access network components, transmission components, or 5G SA UPF core functions.

At the same time, we’ve seen greater attention paid to optimization in telco, particularly in the area of field service management. Solutions gaining dominance in 2024 focused on environmental protections, security and operational efficiency, helping field service workers operate in the field without the need to visit the office.

New models of cooperation

There is no doubt that telcos no longer stand alone in the tech world. Rather, they have embraced the opportunities of the IoT to become the foundation for development in many different verticals. One area of note in 2024 was the greater cooperation between telcos – advancing towards redefinition as techco – and utilities providers.

Traditionally, municipal and commercial utilities providers have used their own communication networks. However, these are complex, often outdated, non-specific, and can be vulnerable to attack or disruption. The year 2024 proved without question that telcos could cooperate with utilities by offering products meeting existing requirements, while addressing all the issues arising from traditional solutions.

Lessons from 2024 telco trends

It is clear from the above that telcos need to be prepared to evolve to meet demand, embrace new models of operation and cooperation, and be open to using – even developing – increasingly innovative use cases. But above all operators must play close attention to the constantly advancing capabilities of AI. For this is the technology that underpinned the major developments of 2024 – and will continue to do so for years to come.