By: Scott St. John, Pipeline
Once again the town of Nice, France on the flowery fringe of the French Riviera played host to the annual Pipeline Innovation Awards. Nice rarely disappoints, and this year was no exception.I
started my trip with a quaint stroll to stave off the impending jet lag. Weaving through the parks adorned with tasteful pieces of art nouveau, winding down through the cobblestone pedestrian
streets of Old Town — everything seemed to slip away. Nice truly embodies the spirit of the Pipeline Innovation Awards…
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By: Andy Gottlieb
The market for Software-Defined Wide-Area Networks (SD-WANs) is clearly hot, forecasted to grow at a 59 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2021 according to Gartner, with other
analysts showing similarly high growth rates. While fast growth is far from unheard of in the technology sector, the WAN market has been slower to see technologies catch fire, making the rapid
rise of SD-WAN all the more a standout. That said, as more and more vendors pile into the space, each claiming that they are now “doing SD-WANs,” the market is a particularly confusing one, and it
can be difficult for enterprise IT to sort through the competing claims…
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By: Mario Blandini
Nearly a century ago, cars overtook horses on city streets. In response, road networks evolved to better serve changing traffic types. Today, a similar disruption is happening in data networks,
where new devices utilizing the network are more likely to connect wirelessly. From sensors to surveillance cameras to the devices employees and visitors bring with them to a building’s wired
network, wireless is the fastest growing edge of any network. The practice of network planning and design involves an ongoing and iterative process, where evolution is built in…
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By: Paul Whitelam
In today’s competitive business environment, product differentiation is becoming more and more difficult. Service has become a critical way to stay ahead of competitors. As companies increase
efforts to distinguish themselves based on customer service, the experience provided by a mobile workforce becomes increasingly important. While there are various aspects of field service that can
tip the scale toward success or failure, the largest opportunity to increase the productivity of your human capital lies in making sure that the scheduling and dispatch of your mobile workforce are
optimized…
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By: Andrew Colby
If communications service providers (CSPs) are to consistently deliver world-class customer experiences across their diverse network service portfolios, their network operations centers (NOCs)
must become far more customer-centric in nature. Traditional NOCs weren’t designed with today’s network and service complexity in mind. That reality leaves CSPs with little choice but to move
beyond the key performance indicators (KPIs) they have long used to manage their networks. Mounting competitive pressures to deliver and maintain high-quality, on-demand services are driving CSPs
to add smart capabilities in the form of analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to their operational arsenals…
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By: Manjeet Dhariwal
The telecom industry’s future is filled with opportunities and risks in equal measure. Telecom service providers must cope with increasingly demanding customer bases, siloed processes and
systems, and IT budgets that may not fit business aspirations. Moreover, there is no guarantee that telecom companies have the experienced IT staff required to either meet their technological and
strategic goals or implement new solutions and advancements fast enough. Communications Service Providers (CSPs) that are able to successfully navigate these challenges, however, will achieve
stronger operational agility, open up new revenue streams, and increase customer engagement and satisfaction…
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By: Robert Hingston
The advent of the digital age is upon us. Whispers of ‘Digital Transformation,’ ‘Internet of Everything’ and ‘5G’ have grown to a roar and there is no hiding from the increasing consumer
appetite for more connectivity and more services—delivered more quickly, of course. Communications Service Providers (CSPs) need to find out where their next big business will come from. It may not
be from the consumer industry, but instead from the B2B and enterprise market. In order to deliver these demands, service providers and operators need to take a long, hard look at their
infrastructure and make fundamental changes if they are to cope with the sheer volume of information that will soon become mainstream…
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By: Al Balasco
Within a very short time, consumers have turned speed into a preferred way of interacting with their devices. Today, voice-enabled applications—such as Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant—are
increasingly woven into the fabric of everyday life. In the last year alone, the market for smart speakers has grown 128 percent—just in the U.S. This growth will increase, too: advanced speech
recognition, text-to-speech, and speaker verification constitute a market that will be valued at $18.3 billion by 2023, according to Markets and Markets’ Speech and Voice Recognition Forecast
Report…
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By: Scott St. John, Pipeline
Metamorphosis is nature's innovation engine. It takes something that once was and transforms it into something new.This month, our annual Innovation issue is focused on the topic of innovation
and the changes that are taking place across the industry. Add to that the culmination of Pipeline's Innovation Awards, and there is a lot to talk about. But whether you call it change, innovation,
transformation, or evolution, there is a definitive shift this year.Over the years, innovation has been messy…
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By: Scott St. John, Pipeline
Recent weeks brought a cornucopia of telecom industry news, from innovation awards to new collaborations to advance network development and evolution across the globe. The FCC was in the mix,
with reforms intended to help boost accessibility to high-speed broadband as well as with ‘bold strategies’ to crack down on the scourge of robocalls. Updates on 5G included planned switch-on dates
for networks in the UK as well as 5G roaming in certain European countries. The top telecom industry news stories from the month are summarized below…
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