As we move into 2021 it’s no surprise that digital transformation provides the catalyst for change and progression right across all the solution sectors that we operate in. 2020 has been a year like no other with businesses making demands on technology in their quest to adapt to the new normal. We have collaborated as a team to share our observations and predictions of the industry and where we think it’s heading over the next twelve months and beyond.
To download a pdf version of this document: Calteq Trends & Predictions 2021
Voice
There will be a lot of change in the Voice market in 2021. BT Exchanges will begin to be modernised. This has happened in two UK towns already with an additional 117 exchanges scheduled in 2021. As a result we will see a mass migration to Hosted Voice systems. ISDN is now an obsolete technology and will be removed from Openreach’s portfolio by 2025. This will prompt businesses to make the change to Hosted Voice in large numbers. Outdated traditional phone systems are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. Furthermore, decreasing numbers of skilled engineers able to service these systems will make maintenance more and more expensive.
Connectivity
Internet connectivity gets faster and cheaper and our prediction is we don’t see any let up in this. For perfection in terms of speed and reliability leased lines are the holy grail. They’re robust and wholly reliable, we expect demand will only increase for this product. The BT exchange stop sell will necessitate an increase in FTTP availability and demand with the new SoGEA, Single Order Generic Ethernet Access as the stopgap until the fibre rollout is complete.
Unified Communications
Lockdown in March saw us all forced to work from home with very little notice. Here at Calteq we moved at lightning pace to ensure that our clients could continue with business as usual albeit in a remote capacity. Our cloud-based unified communication solution was the enabler for this. We were able to get one of our clients up and running in a fully functioning hosted contact centre with everyone working remotely in a matter of a day. They saw virtually no drop in activity. It’s examples such as these that demonstrate the collaboration and capabilities that’s possible with unified communications.
We do expect workers to return to offices in 2021 but COVID has completely changed working practices. Flexible Hosted Voice services offer the most complete solution with additional services like SIP2Teams providing alternative options for collaborative working.
Mobile
There aren’t any radical changes expected in the mobile market in terms of hardware and this has been the case for a few years now. Here change is driven mostly by customer demand for innovation around tariffs and bespoke offerings.
We introduced the concept of highly flexible deals to our customers a couple of years ago and it’s good to see that the larger providers are now following suit. Continuing to offer customers tailored solutions, which are highly flexible in terms of shared data and multi networks will be the characteristics of those that prosper in mobile as we move into 2021.
We have seen much talk of 5G however, much like all new technology it takes time to bed in and 5G is still in its infancy. It will be interesting to see how it develops. We believe what makes 5G an attractive proposition is that it travels on a low-frequency band and has a broad geographical reach. We see 5G being most effective in remote rural locations where connectivity is poor. It will revolutionise technological processes in industries such as farming who can benefit from smart IoT technologies to streamline productivity.
In-building Cellular
There has been some talk of 5G indoor however, we don’t expect this to impact the in-building cellular market. Strong indoor network coverage is what users have come to expect and that along with digital transformation and smart connectivity will see a sharp uptake in demand for inbuilding cellular solutions. With more workers expected to return to the office by mid-year many companies will want to get ahead of the curve and be prepared.
Cabling
The cabling market might be slower moving than some of our other sectors, but no less important. It is at the heart of everything we do. You need it for everything which is why it’s surprising that it’s typically an afterthought in many infrastructure projects. Without decent cabling infrastructure, you can’t do anything. We have been part of a huge cabling project at a major retailer in 2020 and we’re excited to see this testbed rolled out the length and breadth of the country. The impact it will have on the shopping experience will be revolutionary and cabling is at the heart of it.
“Today more than 5 billion consumers interact with data every day- by 2025, this will increase to 6 billion- 75% of the world population” according to an IDC/Seagate report
Almost every industry is reliant on data and so installing poor quality cables is simply not an option. It can have a disastrous effect on the end-user. In 2021 we expect an increasing demand, from end-users, for companies to use fully compliant data cables across every project. They must not only be able to accommodate current data demands but be future-proofed as data demands increase. Here at Calteq we see this trend as a welcome step-change in our quest to maintain standards of quality, performance, technical compliance and ease of installation and use across every project. Further underlining our commitment, we recently achieved Excel Cable Partner status which ensures that we can provide all installations with a comprehensive 25-year warranty for copper, fibre and voice when installed as part of a total Excel solution.
We hope that you found these trends and predictions useful. If you would like to learn more about Calteq solutions please contact us at hello@calteq.co.uk