New research by Omnisperience published today shows that COVID-19 hasn’t slowed down communications service providers’ (CSPs’) digitalisation efforts – in fact three-quarters say it is speeding them up.

CSPs are facing two key challenges:

• keeping the lights on and dealing with the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
• positioning for innovation and new revenue streams to build their future business.

They cannot afford to take their eye off either of these challenges, but have to manage both simultaneously. So how can they do this?

Keeping the lights on during and after COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated enormous change in the telecoms market. Throughout the crisis, CSPs played a vital role in keeping both enterprises and households connected. But as life begins to normalise, they’re now focused on what comes next.

CSPs are considering what’s going to happen in the autumn and anticipating that customers are going to need to re-assess their spending and that there might be issues around bad debt.

Business customers will have to analyse what they bought for business continuity purposes during the crisis phase and assess whether their ICT is aligned to new ways of working. They will need to get OPEX back under control, and at the same time ensure that their employees have the right tools to facilitate ongoing home working.

Consumers and SMEs are facing financial pressures as furlough and short-working schemes end, and credit dries up. They will need to review and revisit their spending. While communications services will be viewed as essential costs and not discretionary spend, consumers and SMEs will need to right-size their spending to both their budgets and new needs. For some this might mean spending more on communications-based services in order to save money elsewhere. For example, substituting a night out at the cinema with a night in watching Netflix. For others it might mean downsizing their mobile data plan because they’re now largely using broadband plus WiFi.

The situation is complex. The one thing we do know is that there will be a lot of change and that this change needs to be accurately communicated to customers or else they will pick up their phone to find out what is going on. If they’re forced to do this it will increase their anxiety and, at the same time, increase CSPs’ support costs.

For more on this, check out the full Omnisperience blog.