Future considerations

As new services are continually being offered as technology improves and as the market develops, there is always risk that what is available today may be superseded or obsolete in a couple of years. As ever, return on investment and supportability must be taken into consideration when making a buying decision.

Over the next three to five years there is an expectation that LEO Satellite will become increasingly common with smaller dishes, faster speeds, lower latency, and new service offerings such as mobile telephony, for calls, texts, and data. It is also forecast that new entrants to the market will deploy their own constellations which will provide increased competition within the space, and potentially new services. 

The release of the mmWave length radio spectrum for 5G may see speeds improve significantly beyond what is commonplace today, with some predictions that bandwidth could reach as high as 10Gbps. In addition, SD-WAN overlays on these services are expected to become more common as the technology and industry matures. 

Horizon scanning to assess the potential of service providers merging should also be a consideration, especially if you use two for resilience. Potential mergers may be assessed by competition and market authorities as to their suitability and impact. The effect of these on the market and service offerings should be considered within any procurement.

It is also expected that the cost and complexity of installation and integration is expected to continually fall over the forthcoming years in addition to providers offering more managed services. Alongside this the cost of data rates, length of contracts and contractual terms needs careful consideration at the procurement stage with a clear-sighted view on the growth of data usage and expectations within your organisation.