The Digital Divide: Where is the Telco Industry in its Journey to Closing That Divide?

In this episode of the Futurum Tech Webcast, Futurum analysts Shelly Kramer and Ron Westfall discuss the digital divide and explore where the telco industry is in its journey to closing that divide. We explore how closing the digital divide is a top priority for government and society the world over, and how service providers can rise to meet the needs and challenges the digital divide presents.   The topics explored include:   Funding available to telco service providers to help close the digital divide, especially in rural areas;   Low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites and the role satellites are playing in making inroads related to bridging the digital divide;   5G technologies such as fixed wireless access (FWA) and the growth opportunities that exist for telcos within the next five years;   The technical and business considerations telcos must focus on moving forward (including automation of the network operations lifecycle (including network service orchestration, network controller, and analytics capabilities), along with appropriate security protections that provide E2E security assurance (protecting against malware, DDoS, application protection and privacy, and threat analytics).   The importance of partnerships we believe are vital to telco operator success in bringing the kind of support, innovation, infrastructure, and opportunity to the areas they serve.   We highlighted the work of Cisco with its recently announced rural broadband push, along with other vendors like Ericsson, Nokia, and ADTRAN, who are also making key moves and building alliances and partnerships with telcos and Communication Service Providers (CoSPs). We also explored some innovative things that vendors like Netcracker and Marvell are doing and the role those initiatives will play in this ecosphere moving forward.   For more analyst insights related to the digital transformation of the telecos and Communications Service Providers (CoSPs), check out the Futurum Research blog.   Disclaimer: This show is for information and entertainment purposes only. While we will discuss publicly traded companies on this show, the contents of this show should not be taken as investment advice.