Blogs & Opinion

Developing Telecoms annual survey of telecom trends in emerging markets is now complete. We contacted senior executives at over 700 companies - vendors, network operators and mobile service providers - known to be active in emerging markets.

So what are the top telecoms trends for 2013 in emerging markets?

2013 will prove to be another interesting year for the sector...

As 2013 gets underway, we will see a shift towards a truly digital society...

Emerging markets have always been quick to adopt innovative mobile technologies:  low ARPUs means this is essential to creating a strong business case. In 2013 as we see smartphone penetration in emerging markets rising rapidly, we’ll see this trend continue, with new, efficient technologies deployed throughout the network...

The mobile data boom that is set to continue into 2013 and beyond, and service providers will need to find technologies and strategies to survive and thrive...

India's telecom sector faced a particularly turbulent year, but 2013 may well turn around a lot of the negativity that affected the country's market last year.

Broadband will only get bigger and better in 2013...

Content delivery networks will become even more widespread in 2013...

Emerging markets will have easier access to high-speed internet in 2013, which will accelerate uptake...

In 2013, there will be a continued shift in focus for Communications Service Providers (CSPs) from ‘volume-led’ acquisition growth to a ‘value-based’ retention and growth strategy...

Western Union views the following as the strongest digital trends in the financial services industry in emerging markets in 2013...

LTE will continue to grow, with the TDD strand becoming more high-profile in 2013...

Brazil will see a major overhaul of its networks in 2013... 

This year, there will be a significant shift from VPNs to public, private and, importantly, hybrid clouds...

The key word for emerging markets this year is mobility...

Churn will continue to be a major issue for operators in emerging markets in 2013...

Some emerging markets are amongst the most "bandwidth-hungry" environments, even compared to the traditional, more mature North American and European markets...

The CSPs in emerging markets making the most gains in 2013 will be those prepared to innovate in service offerings and customer experience, making the most of the information they will have at their fingertips...

Bandwidth-intensive rich media services will continue to grow this year as BYOD and universal communications take centre stage...

Network virtualisation will be a major trend going into 2013...

Smart device users will increasingly consume data that they don't have to pay for in 2013...

LTE and M2M will be among the technologies that continue to advance in 2013...

The 3 biggest drivers in emerging markets will be the combination of greater availability of low cost smartphones, growth in mobile broadband and a greater urgency around improving the customer experience...

The strongest trends I see for 2013 largely are centered on deepening the connectivity for subscribers around the globe...

3 strongest trends in emerging markets for 2013:

• Big Data
• Location-Based Services
• Customer Experience Management

Data capacity demand is set to increase across 2013...

In many emerging markets, Wi-Fi has become a key complement to mobile broadband. Some markets don't have 3G capability at all, and those that do generally don't have enough capacity to handle the large volume of customers. As a result Wi-Fi is many times the core vehicle to deliver mobile broadband, and this trend will continue in 2013...

Machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies, that allow devices to communicate with each other and with software monitoring and control systems, are expanding into myriad new applications...

2013 will be a year in which many of the emerging trends and technologies from the last few years will become more mainstream...

Emerging markets cover a vast expanse of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, with many local and regional nuances; yet they are tied together with shared market characteristics...

As 3G becomes more widespread, mobile services will continue to evolve in emerging markets...

In emerging markets mobile phone subscriptions are still growing, high end smartphones are still in high demand and cheaper locally-made smart phones continue to enter the market. This means that innovation in mobile phone use and business models will increasingly originate from the emerging markets and strongly influence trends in other markets...

The strongest trend in emerging markets will be the narrowing gap with ‘developed markets’, particularly in the mobile data market...