Top 10 telecoms stories of 2019

To paraphrase the eternally wonderful Sesame Street: this year’s telecoms industry has been brought to you by the number “5”, and the letter’s “G” and “H”.

The first two are a dead giveaway – this has certainly been the year of 5G, especially throughout the major economies of the world. The UK and European markets launched in mid-year 5G networks to keep pace with their US counterparts, and this was swiftly followed by the simultaneous arrival of the big three providers in China.

So if that was the “who” (not quite all) and “where”, the “what” element of 5G has perhaps been the most interesting, particularly in the enterprise space. That is to say, the use case studies are now here, and the year saw great examples of how 5G networks can transform healthcare, engineering and industry in general.

But the second of our Sesame Street letters, H, represents the company that dominated the 5G industry on a global scale. It has been our job to show what Huawei’s technology can do and is doing, rather than focus solely on who the company is and who it may be aligned to. Let’s face it: Huawei is going nowhere any time soon in 2020 when it comes to global telecoms.

Here is Computer Weekly’s top 10 list of what was driving the telecoms industry during 2019.