SPECIAL REPORT – TELECOMMUNICATIONS
An interconnected world
The internet is no longer a luxury but a necessity, and demand for internet is set to grow. For three
main drivers of growth are:
- Increasing number of internet connected devices as we move into a world with the “Internet of
Things” - Greater demand for internet bandwidth as services and content get pushed to the cloud
- A move towards remote work, further increasing the need for fast reliable interconnectedness.
We explore these themes in this special report.
Background
Across Australia, New Zealand, and the world, the internet has transformed from a
gimmick to a basic necessity. For the majority of businesses and individuals, internet access has become just as essential as water, electricity and gas.
Australians and New Zealanders are consuming more data than ever, and interconnectedness is pervading more and more of our lives, from television, to shopping, to fitness and online gaming.
believes that this is a theme that will continue for the foreseeable future. In this report, we take you through a broad overview of some of the major advancements
that are forecast in technology in the years to come. We decipher the jargon so you can get going faster.
Source: EY Digital Australia State of the Nation 2015-16
Drivers of telecoms growth
The Internet Of Things
The internet of things is one of the biggest buzzwords in technology today. The
concept behind it is actually fairly old. Loosely defined, it refers to is the fact that, as computing power and Wi-Fi devices becomes cheaper, we are able to build consumer level computers into objects in addition to traditional computers.
Items in the internet of things could be as simple as a digital camera that is capable of uploading photos directly to your Facebook account to GPS devices that automatically update based on live traffic feeds.
The thing that all these devices have in common is that, in order to function, they need to connect to the internet. In fact, the number of internet capable devices that people own has grown exponentially over the past decade and is set to grow further. It is only 10 years ago that it was not uncommon for a family to have one family computer as their only internet device. Now it is not uncommon for a person to have
3-4 private internet devices – a smartphone, laptop, a tablet, and perhaps a smart watch or smart TV.
Proliferation of online content and cloud processing
For a while now, many of the tasks we have been using computers for a moving from the devices we own to servers that are located elsewhere that we access via the internet.
Storage, processing, and delivery of content are moving from stored devices to the cloud with services such as Office 365 for Microsoft Office tasks, Dropbox for storage, Netflix for access to video content, and many, many more.
Syncing large amounts of data across multiple devices are the norm – leading to more demand for high transfer speeds – another plus for the telecommunications industry.
Remote workers
Remote work is forecast to be more and more a part of the future. A recent survey of business leaders at the Global Leadership Summit in London found that 34% said more than half their company’s full-time workforce would be working remotely by 2020. A
full 25% said more than three-quarters would not work in a traditional office by 2020. This is only four years from now.
Most white-collar jobs workers already work remotely in that they have mobile phones that are connected to their work environment from which they check and
respond to email. A large proportion of workers also take work home, a trend that is set to continue.
View
The future of the internet looks bright, with many forces working together to build demand for bandwidth from greater number of devices, larger volumes of content and
services to be delivered via the internet.
Next week, we will explore structure of the telecommunications industry in Australia and New Zealand, including:
- What does the industry currently look like?
- What is the role of regulation within Telecommunications?
- How might telecommunications providers evolve in the future?