As year-end approaches, analyst and consultancy firms, industry players and assorted commentators are once again posting their predictions for telecoms in 2024. However diverse their research interests or business focus, almost all of these forecasts share a common theme this time around - namely the expected impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the industry as a whole in the year ahead.

Since the early 2010s, connectivity has become central to the lives of people living in developed markets. It was very apparent that the internet was fast becoming life-changing technology, as it enables levers to streamline productivity and deliver entertainment in ways that were deemed unimaginable decades ago. Now at the end of 2023, we see multiple organisations and bodies calling for universal broadband access to become a basic human right.

Last week, we examined the impact of mobile money in Africa, exploring the runaway success of M-Pesa in Kenya by framing this against the broader backdrop of the continent, where mobile money has frequently been touted as the solution to financial inclusion.

Mobile money is one of the great success stories in Africa – or at least, this is the popular narrative around the technology. In this two-part series of Features, we will examine mobile money’s impact in Africa, and the extent to which it really has revolutionised financial inclusion in the continent.

Artificial intelligence has ascended to the top of minds in the telecoms sector over the past year due to its potential to transform the industry.

TM Forum president and CEO Nik Willetts (pictured) opened Digital Transformation World 2023 with a stark message for the telecoms industry, claiming it is at a “crisis point” where it faces being left behind by the “very revolution we’ve created”. 

In the final instalment of our recent series focusing on e-waste in emerging markets, we reached out to a major Asian operator to learn more about how they plan to achieve a major sustainability pledge - Thailand’s True Corp, which has announced that it aims to achieve zero e-waste to landfill by 2030.

In the first instalment of this series, we explored the scale of the issue of e-waste and some of the steps being taken to reduce it. As attitudes towards sustainability shift, policymakers take note – whether at company or government level – and in this article we’ll explore the factors pushing the industry towards sustainability.

In this new series of features, Developing Telecoms will explore the under-reported issue of electronic waste. We will explore possible solutions for addressing the issue as well as examining a case study with a leading Asian operator, but to begin, this article aims to examine the scale of the issue affecting operators in developing markets.

Shutting down 2G and 3G is ramping up across the globe as operators make way for more capacity for 4G and 5G networks. It is the inevitable cycle of progress, out with the old, and in with the new as the old saying goes.

Helios Towers is one the biggest towercos in Africa, and since its IPO four years ago the firm has dramatically expanded its footprint and portfolio. It has also strongly pushed a sustainability agenda while continuing to drive increased coverage across some of the most challenging markets in the continent. We caught up with the firm’s CEO Tom Greenwood to discuss how it has achieved this.

Despite the heavy emphasis on sustainability in 2023, it does not change the fact that global economies are growing beasts, with insatiable demand for energy as they grow. 

Those of us in the telecoms industry have sat through the same keynote speeches, listening to the same messages year after year on how enhanced connectivity will be the core to a brighter future for mankind.

Smartphone sales in India are down to their lowest level since 2019, despite the pandemic underlining the importance of connectivity in society. However, while the overall volume of shipments may have dropped, the devices in demand are increasingly more expensive high-end models.

The Philippines telecoms market is one that constantly hits the headlines and this heat stems from the historic duopoly of Globe Telecom and PLDT’s Smart Communications in the archipelagic nation.

Through acquisitions and shareholdings, the Hungarian government – led by Prime Minister Victor Orbán’s Fidesz party – is increasingly displaying its determination to boost the state’s role in the telecoms sector, arguing that it will deliver an economic boost to Hungary, strengthen its position on the global stage, and prove beneficial for consumers.

The over-arching purpose of smart cities is to improve the living standards of their people through multiple pathways, be it waste management, transportation or energy efficiency, to name a few. All of this can lead to making citizens more productive and delivering what all countries desire - economic growth.

Mobile World Congress 2023 may be done and dusted, but the agenda that emerges from the show tends to impact the industry’s focus across the following year. I’ve felt in the past that these trends have been more tangible than they were in 2023; we’re perhaps in a year of evolution rather than revolution.

In our latest Features Review video, DT Editor Manny Pham and Director of Content James Barton take a look back at featured articles from the past months.

Above all else, North Korea is defined by its secrecy – this isolated nation tightly controls the flow of information into and out of its borders, and this is never more apparent than with its telecoms sector.

African nations, operators and private companies were all in agreement that Africa continues to hold so much potential, with much progress being made, but how much longer are we going to hear this instead of seeing it being fully realised?

Over the past few months, Developing Telecoms has been working hard to produce more analytical pieces focused on the exciting and unpredictable workings of emerging markets telecoms. We’ve now compiled these articles into our new Features section for ease of access.

In October 2022, Zambia announced that it would zero-rate imports of telecoms equipment in a bid to encourage investment into the country’s ICT sector, which the government views as essential to job creation and economic development in the market.

Venezuela’s telecoms sector has not been flush with positive developments of late – the country’s economy has been in a downward spiral for well over five years now, and this has caused a staggering decline in a sector that had seen average to strong growth up until around 2015.