Page 16 - Red Hat PR REPORT - JANUARY 2025

Feature

Key trends and innovations set to transform telecom industry in

2025

By Ian Hood, Telecommunications chief technology officer, Red Hat

The pace of change continues to accelerate and the ecosystem surrounding our telecom industry
thrives on tackling innovation through open collaboration. With ongoing operational and economic
challenges to stay competitive, service providers are taking a measured and deliberate path forward,
with a focus on business benefits, while constantly adapting to ongoing changes. Many service
providers are also tackling the transformation of their customer and business processes to evolve
from telcos to digital tech companies. In the coming year, service providers will continue to focus on
a number of key themes, as follows.

Driving expansion and commercial success of 5G

Next generation 5G continues being deployed globally, with greater focus on identifying successful
business models as well as coverage expansion. While competition to lead the industry remains
fiercer than ever, commercial success has been somewhat slower than expected. To fully unlock the
potential of 5G, we will see a renewed focus on fresh operational methodologies, innovative
business opportunities, and new partnerships.

Using AI to improve business and resource efficiency

AI has already made significant strides over the past few years, and in 2025, this momentum will
continue with tremendous speed and have more impact on how we live, especially in
telecommunications. AI is well suited to the distributed nature of telco networks, enabling
automation of lifecycle management, providing insights across every segment of technology, every
device and service. AI is poised to accelerate the offering of innovative new experiences, while
improving business and resource efficiency. While some companies may achieve substantial annual
gains enabled by AI, leaders should identify a realistic goal for increasing productivity and
operational efficiency through AI and implement it across their business accordingly.

Service providers have the opportunity to control their destiny. If they are truly willing to disrupt
themselves, break away in their market, and embrace AI, they will survive this transition. Now is the
time to focus on disruption and speed.

Harnessing observability to enable autonomous infrastructure
Observability enables a data-driven approach to automating the infrastructure across hardware,
software, and cloud deployments. Data is the new differentiator to the value of service provider
futures. Combining predictive analytics, generative AI (gen AI), and open APIs enables service