BY RENATO SILVA, COMMUNICATIONS & MEDIA LATAM
The telecommunications sector is at a turning point demanding a shift from telco to techco.
The traditional model, centred around connectivity as the core product, is rapidly being overtaken by new patterns of consumption, technology, and competition. Services like voice, SMS, and pay TV, once the financial backbone of telecom operators, have been steadily losing relevance. In 2020, a study by Juniper Research projected a 45% decline in global mobile voice service revenue between 2019 and 2024. This erosion is largely attributed to users migrating to OTT services (such as WhatsApp, Zoom, and FaceTime), which have effectively replaced traditional mobile calls.
SMS, especially in the person-to-person (P2P) segment, has also experienced a sharp decline. According to a Juniper Research report published in 2024, SMS accounted for 45% of global mobile messaging revenue that year and is expected to drop to around 32% by 2029, making it a clear minority channel compared to OTT messaging platforms. Factors such as spam, fraud, high per-message costs, and the richer experience offered by modern apps have all contributed to this shift.
Average revenue per user (ARPU) continues to decline, while streaming platforms, messaging apps, and satellite connectivity services steadily encroach on the space traditionally held by telecom providers.
Compounding this, new entrants are operating under entirely different paradigms. Companies like Starlink and Amazon Kuiper don’t rely on terrestrial infrastructure and offer global internet access on demand, with their own platforms and end-to-end control. It’s new geopolitics of connectivity, driven by technology giants.
Against this backdrop, reinvention is no longer optional. Operators must go beyond being connectivity service providers and become true technology companies – the so-called ‘techcos’.
The journey from telco to techco is, at its core, a journey to become more present and more relevant in people’s lives. In this new landscape, the differentiator is not just the network, but the ability to integrate solutions from diverse partners into a dynamic ecosystem – cloud, fintech, cybersecurity, content, IoT – with agility, speed, and intelligence.