Future of telecommunication and social networking

Ever since the inception of human civilization man has been in a constant strive for the proliferation of more and more evolved means of communication. From pouter pigeons to mobile phones, human ingenuity and innovation have always progressed with the passage of time. So what does the future hold for us?

Before delving into it we must reflect upon the trends we have now. The face of communication has changed dramatically over the past few years. Traditional telecommunication companies, which have historically dominated two-way interpersonal conversations, are increasingly being challenged by new market entrants that use the open platform of the internet to meet rapidly changing and diverse needs of the consumer. Until recently, the telecommunication industry has been multiplying day and night. They are one of the largest industries of the world in terms of active user base, with more than 4 billion active mobile users worldwide.

With the advent of Web 2.0 and social networking, the telecommunication industry is losing revenue from their basic functionalities i.e. one-to-one phone calls and SMS. People are becoming more and more disenchanted with the traditional and closed services provided by the telecommunication industry. People are flocking towards a more open, highly interactive and attractive new services like Facebook and twitter that place the user, their activities and preferences at the core of the of the service. These services are achieving more and more success among the final users.

All of this represents two long term shifts in trends of telecommunication. Firstly, there is a shift in communication patterns – from point-to-point, two-way interpersonal conversations to many-to-many, collaborative communications. Secondly, control of the communication environment is moving from the grasp of telecommunication companies to open Internet service providers. This shift is being made possible by better and cheaper technology, open standards, greater penetration of broadband services and wireless communication networks.

With numerous communication tools at their disposal, social networks are becoming integrated communication hubs. The integration of Facebook and Skype, for example, illustrates how social networks and communication applications can merge to benefit users. Facebook users can make Internet phone calls using Skype’s telephony .Twitter has become extremely popular. More than just a messaging platform, it has evolved into a platform for unified social communications where friends, business partners, and acquaintances can connect for conversation. Instead of sending e-mails, sending texts or making phone calls, many people choose to write short messages on Twitter and publish them via their computers or mobile devices.

In contrast, Telecom operators suffer from a lack of new innovative and successful services, as confirmed by the fact that traditional voice communication is still the major service. As acknowledged by different sources, the Telecom market needs to change - adopting the new principles of openness, collaboration, user participation, etc – in order to meet the new Web and enter the new multimedia service ecosystem. A new ecosystem is emerging from the shifts in communication trends that will require bold, significant changes by existing Telecom providers. The option of doing nothing is not a luxury they can afford as revenues from traditional services continue to decline and highly resourceful Internet service providers and IT companies enter the communications space to claim a larger share of the communication market.