Having spent nearly three decades navigating the telecom industry, from rotary dials to real-time cloud, one lesson stands firm: the only constant in this business is change.
We began with landlines, when the ring of a home phone was a communal event. SmartTouch features were the marvel of the moment, and long-distance charges were both a revenue stream and a customer deterrent. Simpler times, perhaps, but undeniably foundational. Then came the dial-up internet era. Painfully slow, often loud (those tones!), and yet, utterly transformational. “You’ve got mail” wasn’t just a notification; it was a doorway to a new frontier.
As convergence took hold, television entered the mix. Bundling became gospel. Then mobile arrived, and rewrote the rules entirely. Voice, text, and eventually data reshaped how we lived, worked and connected. We watched users migrate from living rooms to handhelds, from calling customer care to avoiding human contact entirely.
Behind the scenes, the KPIs were ever-present: increase ARPU, reduce churn, improve EBITDA, retain subscribers. Whether it was triple-play, quad-play, or the latest spectrum auction, we kept playing the same game — just on faster courts with shifting goalposts.
Now, as we move to 5G and virtualised everything, telecom is no longer just a utility, it’s a digital lifestyle platform. Customers no longer judge us by dropped calls or download speeds alone. They expect seamless experiences, predictive service and personalised relevance.
Ironically, the more we digitise, the more human our approach must become. So, while we’ve traded copper for fiber and boxes for the cloud, the mission remains: to keep people meaningfully connected in a world that moves faster every day.
Let’s not forget: in this business, if you’re not evolving, you’re already obsolete.
Mir Taqi Mir very well described: “Sabaat ek taghayyur ko hai zamaanay main” i.e. in this world, only change holds permanence.
In telecom terms? Stay curious. There’s always a next.
Faisal I Siddiqi
Mississauga, Canada
