Industry experts share their views on developments during 2022 and future outlook for 2023

As per Arvind Bali, chief executive officer, Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC), “2022 was a phenomenal year for the telecom and skilling industries. Both saw significant reforms in both policies and initiatives which have elevated their contribution in nation building. We at Telecom SSC have been closely working with both ministries and secretaries to enhance the aspirations of the youth to work in new fields like 5G, internet of things (IoT), drone technology and many more. K Rajaraman (Secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT)) has been personally driving the telecom skilling initiative with monthly review meetings to ensure availability of adequate skilled workforce for the next wave in telecom. Over the next 3 years, we will be training over 100,000 budding youth in these technologies and many more. We plan to add 10 centre of excellence (CoEs) and the 100,000 training is being done with DoT oversight. We are going to add 100 new courses to our roster for use cases in both legacy and new technologies. The rollout of 5G will help accelerate advancement in skilling and telecom. We lend our support to the government and industry initiatives to empower the next generation of India.”

 

 

Meanwhile, Amit Marwah, Head of Marketing and Corporate Affairs (CMO), Nokia India, said, “2022 has been a landmark year for the telecom sector. Nokia has been greatly encouraged by the pace and efficiency of 5G spectrum allocations in India and the extension of the PLI scheme. We reaffirm our commitment to enable our partners achieve rapid 5G deployment – likely to be one of the fastest rollouts in the world. Major communication service providers (CSPs) have announced plans to have a pan-India 5G presence by end of 2023 or early 2024 and we are supporting the implementation of several thousand sites across various circles every week. In 2023, we hope to see continued government support in enabling the digital ecosystem to truly tap the benefits of the socio-economic applications of 5G technology. 2023 is also expected to witness wider adoption of private networks by enterprises and businesses for enhanced efficiency and security. Further, we hope to support India’s full and equal participation in the evolution of 6G standards in the next few years as our research and development (R&D) engineers based here continue to contribute to the collaborative global effort.”

 

 

 

According to Manish Vyas, president, Communications, Media and Entertainment Business, and CEO, Network Services, Tech Mahindra, said, “In the year 2022, there were a lot of conversations about seamless connectivity, fast speed, and how technology can lead the fourth industrial revolution. Riding on India’s digital prowess, 2023 will be instrumental in spearheading innovation for enterprises and telecom companies, allowing them to transform into next-generation digital service providers by delivering immersive experiences. 5G will be used to develop revolutionary applications and innovative use cases in industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, BFSI, and autonomous driving, to name a few. For us at Tech Mahindra, the 5G playbook is at three levels – for telecom, ecosystem and for the enterprise. We see 5G for enterprise (5G4E) as our next growth strategy, and we are already doing multiple pilots on it across the world. The world is yet to see sufficient growth in 5G4E, but this will change in the coming years. I often say that 5G is a critical piece in connecting all of India’s digital dots. It will become the standard for mobile communications technology in the coming years ushering in a new era of improved connectivity, communication, and collaboration that will spearhead the next wave of digital disruption, bringing us one step closer to realising our dream of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, technological supremacy, and sustainable economic development.”

 

 

Additionally, Manoranjan Mohapatra, chief executive officer, Comviva, “2022 has been a phenomenal year for all of us at Comviva. Our reinvention as a leading digital technology platform partner and expansion into new western markets like the US and Europe has been extremely encouraging and expected to fuel future growth. We received a very strong response on our new “digital transformation and commerce platform” and “growth marketing” solutions. As we grow, we shall invest more in building differentiated propositions and use cases around enriched marketing and customer experience, digital enterprise and commerce solutions and embedded payments solutions. We shall continue our focus on building the next Gen platforms that are artificial intelligence (AI) / machine learning (ML) powered, cloud native, software-as-a-service (SaaS) enabled and API driven.”

 

 

 

Also, Vishal Agrawal, managing director, Avaya, said, “The industry is going through a transformational stage of growth to adapt to the latest technical and cloud trends. In this post-pandemic phase, a number of themes have emerged, and we are convinced that they will continue to be important in 2023 and beyond. Several trends like the metaverse, AI, 5G, and IoT, are new forms of communication along with hybrid and remote working model, which we believe will continue indefinitely. The cloud is what we need to stay connected with these work modes. It is evident that people are loving this new environment, and from the standpoint of communicators, this opens new opportunities. The fact that things have completely taken a turn in the digital era proves that change is the only constant, and we must embrace it as it comes. Most IT leaders are interested in futuristic technology but are not sure of how to use it or what some practical business use cases are. A cloud communications solution that works the way you do, where you do, is no longer the wave of the future — it’s here, now.”