Why Telecommunication Industry Needs Big Data

It is no secret that nowadays telecommunication companies are competing to win domination over who gets the biggest market share to connect people. Because of this, they have had to shift their focus from providing the best network to providing the best service. This primarily because the telecommunication industry has reached the point where it is everywhere. Even the most remote areas in the world have access to telecom services. They might not have Wi-Fi, but they’re bound to have a telecom provider. Again, this is also due to the rise of social media, but it establishes an interesting point: the telecommunication industry is at its peak now. Unless one specific company develops a super-fast internet, service which will overtake 4G and 5G (which has already been introduced by some), there is no way to establish dominance in the market.

So, in order to attract more customers, the industry has had to turn its sights on developing the best customer service possible. This is also where the extensive use of Big Data comes from.
Big Data analytics help these companies to develop detailed customer profiles in order to create more targeted offers for their core demographics. It helps telecommunication companies to gather accurate information about the people who use their services. Furthermore, to make things more competitive, it also provides them with details on how their competitors are doing so they can set their marketing strategies accordingly.
Previously, the telecommunication industry struggled with getting consumer data right and often times depended on surveys and polls which were not always accurate. Big Data has changed the game as it monitors customer behavior and other massive amounts of data which previously could not make sense.
Another benefit of using Big Data is that it has helped with churn prediction in the telecommunication industry as well. Predictive churn analysis and algorithms have helped these companies to understand how market trends work better, thus increasing the probability of attracting new customers as well as maintaining relations with older ones. Again, by using data analytics, they are able to predict the number of customers leaving and entering their services, so they can set plans accordingly.

Most importantly, Big Data has helped to personalize the customer experience. Recent studies have shown the importance of better customer service. In fact, that just might be the slogan of our decade: the better the customer experience, the more business you will do. This is because people value experience. There are a lot of companies in the market which provide almost the same service as you do and to make yourself stand out, you have to have stellar customer service. With the help of Big Data, you can take advantage of this increased demand for better customer experience and deliver. It’s not really very difficult to provide great service to your customers if you have the tools needed to identify their needs. And that’s what Big Data is to most telecommunication companies: it is the tool to do better. So, it really should not come as a surprise that they’re using it to compete against one another.

Why the Telecommunication Industry is Late to the Game

By now, you probably understand why the telecommunication industry is making the move towards Big Data. However, there must be one question still in your mind: why did it take the telecommunication industry this long to make the move?
To understand this, we’ll have to look at the history of the telecommunication company.
The telecommunication industry goes way back to the nineteenth century. It was kickstarted by Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone, but it wasn’t limited to that alone. In fact, Graham Bell just changed the way we perceived communication by creating the telephone. Before that, our main channels of communication included messages via horseback or established postal services. That was it. But when the telephone was invented, we suddenly got a new channel of communication which instantly connected people. Then we got a fax and other message delivery services. But the primary form of communication remained with telephones only. The development of mobile phones did little to change the way the telecommunication industry worked. It is safe to say that the telecommunication industry remained stagnant for a good few decades.

Then came social media and applications like WhatsApp and Skype that make extensive use of video and voice calling services. While there were video call options on the internet before these platforms were developed, they were simply not as good or widespread as their modern-day counterparts are. Because of this, the telecommunication industry has had to make the move to Big Data. It simply can’t afford to compete against these giants without additional help. So, while it might be late to the game, it doesn’t mean the telecommunication industry isn’t on par with others in its use of Big Data. It’s actually using Big Data more than a lot of other industries right now because of integral it is to its frameworks.

Conclusion

In the end, it really is no surprise that the telecommunication industry has started using Big Data. Given the amount of information required for analysis, it is only a matter of time before all telecommunication companies turn to relay on Big Data. For most, it might just be the matter of cost which prevents them from turning to Big Data but eventually, as trends show, every telecommunication company- no matter how big or small it is- will make use of data analytics to help it grow and prosper.