The telecommunication industry is facing declining profitability levels due to competition from OTT players, price wars, and increasing expenditures to meet data demand. The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated this situation. Arthur D. Little is partnering with telecommunication players to overcome these challenges and improve performance, enhance the customer experience, and quality of service. A transformative approach is recommended to support clients by redefining network operations and evolving towards network cloudification/softwarization. This will change the cost structure of mobile network operators and aim to reduce OPEX and optimize CAPEX. Intense competition requires telecom players to aim for better efficiency to compensate for pressure on the top line. They must build a transformative multiyear program to protect margins for future investments. Global data traffic is expected to reach 160 exabytes per month by 2025, and mobile and fixed data traffic are expected to increase as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.
