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Data Science Trends in the World of Telecommunications

Anika Imajo

May 2022

Positioned firmly at the intersection of consumer demands and technological advances, the telecommunications industry must respond rapidly to the dynamics of both worlds. Current trends for telecommunications reflect such developments as the spread of 5G, the expansion of IoT tools, the increase in edge computing, and the continuous rise in customer expectations for service, security, and accessibility. Some of the ways in which telecommunications companies are addressing consumer needs with technological innovations include:

Predicting and Preventing Customer Churn with Advanced Analytics - The value of attracting and retaining customers is self-evident. In the telecommunications industry, an ongoing challenge is making sure existing customers are sufficiently satisfied with service and features to prevent them from straying to other providers. Fortunately for these companies, the telecommunications arena is replete with opportunities to gather data about their customers’ preferences, usage, and behaviors. Having the knowledge and tools to analyze transactions and data and real-time data is key to gaining insights into a given customer’s experience with their service and what measures could be taken to improve it. In addition, the ability to perform sentiment analysis on social media posts and other unstructured data sources can help companies gauge responses to various offerings, determining whether they are favorable or unfavorable. Such insights can help telecommunications providers identify customers who might be on the verge of canceling their service and can guide decisions about how to retain their business.

Price Optimization - In preventing customer churn, the perennial pricing challenge ranks along with the quality of users’ experience as the top critical drivers. Monthly fees related to telecommunications plans, which often combine various services and features, are always important considerations for customers weighing their options for providers. To remain competitive in a crowded telecommunications marketplace, companies must strike the right balance between profitability and acceptability to consumers. The line between the two is often very difficult to find. Data science tools for creating simulations and forecasts are increasingly guiding telecommunications companies in identifying ideal pricing models that are both sustainable and attractive to customers.

AI-Driven Fraud Detection - There is a dizzying volume and variety of phone-based scams, with new forms of phone fraud surfacing on a regular basis. These crimes involve the use of communications—such as the dreaded robocalls and unsolicited text messages—to execute swindles ranging from identity theft and account takeovers to subscription fraud. The Truecaller Insights 2021 Scam & Spam Report states that 59.49 Million Americans surveyed reported that they lost money due to phone scams in the 12 months prior. This is an obvious source of concern for telecommunications companies, which are keenly interested in detecting, and potentially anticipating, fraudulent activities. Just as scammers become more technologically savvy, service providers must also continuously adopt more sophisticated approaches to mitigating crimes that take advantage of technological vulnerabilities. One of the ways in which telecommunications companies can wield the power of technology to combat these threats is by employing AI-based tools to automate fraud monitoring systems, reducing the time it takes to receive an alert and intervene when fraud is detected and enabling systems to track patterns that can potentially reveal new forms of telecommunications-based crimes.

As the general public’s reliance on telecommunications devices continues to increase upward, both customer expectations and customer data likewise increase. Ongoing trends in the telecommunications industry benefit from these combined circumstances, leveraging innovative technologies and a spectrum of data to understand, anticipate, secure, and improve customer experiences.

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