Demand in 2022 will be driven by investments in “AI, cloud and data center expansion, health care, and growing automotive applications,” per Duncan Stewart, Deloitte’s director for technology, media, and telecommunications. "Every end market for semiconductors is growing, and growing as fast or faster than ever before," Stewart said.

At the same time, connected cars are expected to drive significant growth for the telecom industry as providers roll out new varieties of data plans to accommodate consumers. Major cellular providers AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile all offer data plans for vehicles, and new players like Starlink are also working on in-vehicle offerings.

The news: Banking customers crave seamless digital communication, personalized financial advice, and sometimes a human touch, per a report from Sinch, a Stockholm-based provider of telecom and cloud communications platform as a service solutions. The report surveyed 2,900 financial services consumers in over 15 countries during the first half of 2022.

South Korea’s implementation of the Telecommunications Business Act sets a radical precedent that could motivate antitrust watchdogs in other countries to pursue regulation more aggressively.

Retailers and healthcare incumbents are racing to get as close to patients as possible—through in-home services, remote patient monitoring, and at-home tests. Here’s where these trends will lead in 2023.

Broadcom makes an array of chips used in mobile phones and telecom networks. Adding VMware would allow it to expand into cloud services as well as enable expansion into data centers. VMware—a cloud computing and virtualization company—currently has a $40 million market valuation and was previously a subsidiary of Dell Computers.

Earlier this year, Meta indicated that its metaverse won’t be possible unless there are sweeping improvements to telecom networks. Glasses and VR headsets need more advanced connectivity than tech like smartphones. But establishing 5G speeds across the US will take time. Many (28%) US and UK-based adults don’t intend to upgrade their networks to 5G over the next year.

Google announced a partnership in July with Ericsson to provide last-mile 5G, albeit on a much smaller scale, in conjunction with Telecom Italia. Key stats: According to GSMA forecasts, operators are expected to spend $900 billion worldwide between 2021 and 2025 on mobile capital expenditures, nearly 80% of which will be in 5G, and much of this expenditure could run on cloud infrastructure.

Other telecom-friendly policies on the table include enabling cross-border mergers and potential telecom and carrier consolidations. These could result in a genuine single market for European telecoms. EU’s competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, supports the idea as long as it doesn’t reduce competition in individual EU countries.

Telehealth users: Adults who use telehealth technologies at least once per year; includes all methods and avenues for enhancing public health medical education and healthcare support and delivery using telecommunication technologies.

Telispire, a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC), integrated Splitit's Installments-as-a-Service platform into its technology stack and billing system, per a press release. This lets Telispire's mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) customers offer installment payments to subscribers for their devices and services.

South Korea’s Telecommunication Business Act set a radical precedent for breaking up the mobile duopoly’s lucrative app store operations and control over commission fees. Similarly, Japan’s Fair Trade Commission forced Apple to let some apps prompt users to sign up for subscription services with links to the app owner’s website and alternative payment options.

For this forecast, we consider traditional linear TV any type of video content delivered via cable, satellite, telecom, or over-the-air antenna. We define digital video as video viewed via over-the-top or connected streaming services, as well as video viewed on social media, including YouTube. Time spent with each medium includes multitasking.

GPS signals are highly imprecise indoors, but other signals have started to fill in the gap. 5G brings better accuracy, but most of the advantages go to telecom companies. Telecom companies are increasingly interested in selling anonymized location data, and they may become a bigger source of such data in the future. This could lead to more high-quality data, including that sourced from indoors.

In an effort to prevent APP fraud, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) worked with telecom providers to create a “do not originate” list. This is a list of telephone numbers associated with well-known companies that are only able to receive calls, but cannot place outgoing calls.

AT&T CTO Jeffrey Legg spoke about how telecoms haven’t done enough to market 5G solutions to startups. It’s something the company aims to change partly by powering the cloud with 5G. The big takeaway: The fingerprints of the pandemic were clearly visible at Disrupt.

A few weeks ago, Meta revealed that building its metaverse won’t be possible unless there are sweeping improvements to telecom networks, since glasses and VR headsets require more advanced connectivity than tech like a smartphone. 5G will be an essential element to boost connectivity over the next few years, but it’ll take time before 5G speeds are established all across the US.

In the two years since our inaugural “Power of Amazon” report, Amazon has remained a retail and tech powerhouse—but it hasn’t been immune to economic uncertainty, shifting consumer behaviors, or increased competition. We examine how Amazon’s 19 business divisions have changed and how these new developments might affect your industry.

More than a decade ago, telecoms and retailers teamed up to target the burgeoning mobile in-store payments space, but it proved too costly. In the US, Apple Pay and Google Pay reign supreme in the nearly $247 billion proximity mobile payments space, accounting for 43.4% and 25.0% of the market’s users, respectively.

Ukraine’s major internet service provider, Ukrtelecom, reported the Russian bombardments were causing serious damage to its telecommunications networks. “We remind you that due to the damage to infrastructure during the combat, subscribers of 12 regions experience a reduced speed of internet access,” the company wrote on its Facebook page.

On today's episode, we discuss the ways in which firms are prepared—and unprepared—for AI, what happens when companies have finished test-driving generative AI, and what to make of Meta giving away its AI model. "In Other News," we talk about when we can expect to see GPT-5 and how Apple’s lip-reading technology could be a step toward artificial general intelligence. Tune in to the discussion with our analysts Jacob Bourne and Gadjo Sevilla.

Russian rise: Telegram has surpassed WhatsApp as Russia's most popular messaging app, per Russian telecom Megafon, with Russians flocking to the service as their government tightens restrictions on social platforms. Telegram's share of mobile internet traffic increased to 63% in the first two weeks of March from 48% in the first two weeks of February, per Megafon data.

One Store, which was founded in June 2016, belongs to a conglomerate of South Korea’s three telecom providers—SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus—and internet provider Naver. More than a slap on the wrist: The fine is a result of Google’s alleged efforts to require Korean video game companies to exclusively release new games on the Play Store from June 2016 to April 2018.

A decade ago, 85.7% of the US population was reachable through cable, satellite, or telecom and fiber channels, but that audience has since dwindled to just 52.4%. Meanwhile, non-pay TV viewers will outnumber pay TV viewers by the end of 2023. Growth in the non-pay TV population—those that have cut the cord or were never tethered to begin with—is more than offsetting the loss of pay TV viewers.

A month later, India-based telcom provider Airtel launched a Visa-branded co-brand card. These tie-ups can help Visa bolster its global presence and boost payments volume. What’s next? Visa plans to focus more on open banking as the emerging tech gains steam within payments. Visa closed its acquisition of open banking provider Tink in March.