Telcos urged to maintain momentum of COVID-19 gains

While COVID-19 crippled economies across the globe, the telecommunications industry was among the very few sectors gifted with an unexpected windfall.

Never has life been more dependent on its services than over the last three years, when wave after wave of coronavirus outbreaks forced countries into lockdown, limited international travel and changed business, work and play overnight.

While the impact upon the telcos’ bottom lines was welcomed, the market, according to one top executive, was so drastically transformed that new avenues for growth literally sprung up overnight, initially as a response to the pandemic, but now a very real part of the post-COVID “normal”.

Robert Suber, Managing Sales Director Oceania at global satellite service provider Intelsat, urges industry players in the Pacific to further explore this potential.

“To be frank, COVID-19 has presented itself to be a tremendous opportunity for the telecommunications sector,” Suber said. 

“What we should not do is lose the momentum that has been gathered politically, economically, socially and through business, about COVID and the importance of being able to be connected wherever you are, whenever you are remotely working from home.”

Suber was speaking at last month’s Business expo organised by the Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association (PITA) for its members. Intelsat, a U.S.-headquartered satellite service provider covering 99% of the world’s populated regions including the Pacific, was a major sponsor of the event.

Suber identified three promising areas of growth.

“If I turn first of all to what I’ve observed out of governments.  What I’ve seen certainly across Asia and across the region is the awareness of how important it is to have programs in place to enhance connectivity.  That could be ‘black spot’ programs, it could be regional connectivity programs, it could even be universal service obligations. And if we look at those programs that government funds or has levies upon telecommunications companies to attract income, the reality in maybe Indonesia or the Philippines or across the Pacific or Australia, New Zealand, we’re seeing these programs being tweaked, changed or enhanced to make sure that connectivity is deepened into the area where nothing exists today,” Suber said.

“And any one of those countries which I’ve mentioned still have a lot of people unconnected or with just a PSTN service of some sort. So we’ve got a real opportunity to keep pushing that momentum.  The other thing on government is for the last two years in a lot of countries, they’ve had no idea who’s been born, who died, who needs a passport, where they need to travel to, so all of a sudden, e-commerce sounds like something we should be talking about here. I know it’s one of those terms that’s continually brought up, but I think that this time around, it really is relevant. To actually have an agenda and have that conversation with your government leaders to ensure that e-commerce and connectivity at the edges takes place for whatever program is initiated.”

While the worst of COVID-19 may have passed, the world is still reeling from its disruptive impact, with work, business and play still in the throes of transformation and “hybrid” modes emerging as part of post-COVID normal.

“Hybrid working conditions are now the norm – with three days of work at home then travel to the office for the rest of the time. Or even more so, work completely and totally from home,” said Suber.

This is changing the way businesses are thinking about physical and virtual connectivity.

“They’re saying ‘well, you’re not just working from home, you’re connecting to the broader wider area network, you’re part of the complete corporate network, do we need to consider you as a branch office almost? So what does that mean? Does that mean we have to provide you with SD-WAN connectivity? Or do you need multi connectivity access type TV, to have your network managed from a distance?’ So, it’s not just connecting to your home broadband anymore. They’re starting to think of more sophisticated ways of connecting that remote end user and that’s something that’s dramatically changed.  And over that, the overarching umbrella theme of working from home is really business continuity. It’s about making sure that the business that you work for or that the home that you’re running can operate 24/7 if need be.  Any ICT or IT managers that aren’t thinking about that at the moment aren’t doing their job and we as the telecommunications industry need to get behind that to push that.”

Suber also encouraged telecom companies to take advantage of the current push by funding agencies, including governments, to put more money into improving connectivity. 

“The other massive change that I’ve seen is in the realms of the economics of what COVID has created,” he said.

“We have to remember that organisations like Asia Development Bank, World Bank, could we say foreign affairs funding initiatives from various countries, are all pouring money into initiatives on how they can improve telecommunications in the ICT sector. So, that is an absolute target that we need to foster, that we need to amplify in our message of connectivity.”