Nearly half of operators worldwide are already implementing big data, according to recent research.
Based on a survey of 120 operators, Informa Telecoms and Media estimates that 48% of telcos are implementing big data, with the technology representing an average of 10% of their total IT budgets.
Informa expects big data's share of telco IT budgets to increase to around 23% in the next five years, indicating that big data is becoming a strategic priority.
Around 58% of operators surveyed believe that the long-term driver of the technology will be generating new business models. But in the short term, implementations are more closely focused on serving internal challenges such as increasing customer loyalty or improving CEM.
“It makes sense for operators to use Big Data to understand the key challenges and improve the customer experience. By using big data to optimize processes and improve quality of services, operators will already be building a platform to explore new business opportunities,” Informa principal analyst for mobile operator strategy Julio Püschel said.
He added that nearly three in four current big data implementations are focused on specific business applications rather than end-to-end offerings.