A chance for telcos to drive the economy forward after COVID-19

Telcos are vital in retaining any degree of normality in a post-COVID-19 social and enterprise world. They will be not just be critical in allowing countries to manage the move away from COVID-19 related stagnation, but also in providing a robust national infrastructure to motivate GDP growth. This comes from the global tech market advisory firm, ABI Research. 

In the new whitepaper, Telcos As a National Growth Accelerator, ABI Research’s Chief Research Officer, Stuart Carlaw, states several strategies which governments can utilize to invest in stimulating growth by strengthening the telco position.

“The telco community globally has largely been the butt of less favorable regulation, lack of strategic governmental attention, and subject to the hostile intentions of webscale competitors,” says Carlaw. In the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, telcos have emerged as a key asset that have enabled the continuity of many businesses and helped people remain engaged, stimulated, and healthy while in “lockdown” situations. “Moreover,” Carlaw adds, “it could be argued that telcos could play a pivotal role in countries being able to rebound from the financial and productivity shock coming from COVID-19.”

Telcos have been instrumental in assisting some impression of societal continuity during lockdowns because of COVID-19. Telcos have enabled many millions of workers to continue contributing to the global economy from their homes. They have enabled enterprises and organizations to continue functioning and have also provided entertainment to many billions with access to content.

“In a very tactical way, they have enabled governments to track, trace, and manage the spread of the virus, communicate effectively and directly with people, and keep supporting society in a virtual, but valuable way. Without the investment and operational diligence of many telcos, the impact of COVID-19 would have been far deeper and more profoundly felt in all economies.” The essential truth that telcos put mobile devices and connectivity in people’s hands at reasonable and accessible rates is one shining example of opportunity in the current gloomy situation.

Moving forward, how can telcos best serve to drive the global economy as the world comes out of the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic? “This can largely be separated into two major buckets: 1) tactical support for a safe society; and 2) a more strategic role revolving around supporting Gross Domestic Product (GDP) creation in market settings that will have new parameters and effectively be a new paradigm, Post-COVID-19,” Carlaw suggests.

The most significant impact that telcos can have is spurring GDP growth, which will be accomplished by stimulating the embrace of new working practices that are driven by technology. “They will be key in enabling a new digital society. Beyond the obvious conclusions that we are likely to see, including more remote working, more virtual meetings, and more virtual teams (all of which will be enabled thanks to the connectivity supplied by telcos), a raft of new solutions could accelerate GDP growth and all will require a robust level of support from the telco community,” Carlaw concludes.