The Trends in the ICT/Telecom Sector

Looking at the development in technology, the idea of a mobile telephony system, for example, would have been unthinkable hundred years ago. Who would have foreseen an interactive real-time communication system that the Internet offers hundred years ago? Various issues affect the development of technologies: capacities, economic consideration, adaptability, user friendliness and so forth. Today, technological changes have swept across telecommunications industry and the miniaturization of technological and communication devices has imparted enormously on the ubiquitous diffusion of these technologies. The digitization of ICT applications has revolutionized development in this sector. So have the transitions from circuit-switching to packet-switching, from analogue to digital and from fixed to wireless technologies. The telecommunications sector has continuously witnessed a glut of technological devices, whereby selection is logically based on the economics and adaptability of technologies to various regions of the world.

Development and dynamism in the market structure have also contributed to the revolution in the ICT/Telecom sector. The deregulation and liberalization of the telecom market have resulted in a transition from monopolistic market to a competitive market and have ushered in an era of privatization, mergers and acquisition and so on. The combination of the technological trends and the market trends –namely competition, has made telecommunication services more accessible to billions of people globally. For example, in Africa we witness the upsurge in the number of people with access to basic telecommunication services. We witness providers competing for share in the same market, we witness foreign investments in local telecom market and a whole lot of dynamics in the telecom market. As stated in the preceding module, the liberalization of the telecom sector has brought competition to the telecom markets. As a result, there has been an improvement in performance efficiency, and reduction of prices in service provision. It has also spurred technical advances and expanded network capability. Consequently, the introduction of competition has contributed enormously to the growth of the telecommunications sector.
These are the major global trends that are driving development in the ICT/Telecom sector. We shall now endeavour to discuss these trends and identify how they have changed and are continuously shaping the revolution that is taking place in the ICT/telecom arena.