Unseating Donald Trump, the 45th US President Joe Biden will be the new occupant of the Oval Office on 20 January 2021 and he will be sending ‘blue waves’ across the globe. The US General Service Administration (GSA) has finally accepted Joe Biden as the President-elect and started formalising the transition from the Trump administration to the country’s 46th President — and, as it marks a new beginning in US trade relations with the world, will it also accelerate the recovery of the technology, media and telecom (TMT) sector in the new year? Home-bound Lara Tan, looking beyond the confines brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, believes 2021 will be a bright year for the TMT sector.
During his Presidential campaigns,
Joe Biden announced a US$1.3-trillion Infrastructure Bill, which includes
ramping up rural broadband. The implementation of the plans will advance the US
overall economy and create new job opportunities within the country.
Furthermore, he has proposed a $300-billion
research and development (R&D) investment programme in cutting-edge
technologies such as 5G, IoT and AI.
However, some observers and analysts
believe that Democrats will focus on making new spectrums available for 5G
rather than introducing dramatic changes to spectrum policies – resulting in a
split of global technological standards and delaying the rollout of 5G.
Matt
Kendall, Principal Analyst for Telecoms & Tech at The Economist
Intelligence Unit (EIU), says: "The telecoms and technology sector will
stage a recovery in 2021, but with so much uncertainty around, operators will
have to prioritise investment that supports the increasing demand for data and
protects network performance.
“Although
governments and companies are keen to roll out 5G, they will have to make some
tough choices in 2021, given the problems surrounding Huawei."
US sanctions
on Chinese tech companies could threaten their plans and delay 5G rollout
across many countries that are relying on Chinese technology. Meanwhile, a new
spate of lockdowns could also affect telecoms supply chains, raising prices and
delaying shipments, product launches and 5G rollout schedules.
On the
bright side, the lockdowns have spurred a new form of digital consumption.
Mobile revenue will grow in tandem with new consumers’ online buying habits induced
by the pandemic. For instance, consumers’ reliance on connectivity for
everything from business to shopping and entertainment has shot up. Asia and
the Middle East are expected to record the strongest growth in mobile revenues
of 4.7% and 4% respectively in 2021.
The TMT
sector will remain strong. Indeed, mobile subscriptions will recover by 3.4% in
2021, according to the EIU.
Driven by
governments' increased investment in infrastructures to improve digital access,
cloud infrastructure providers will also fare better. The cloud businesses of
Google, Amazon and Microsoft experienced double-digit rises in revenue in the
first half of 2020.
At the
enterprise level, companies will look to cloud-based solutions to help in areas
such as network resilience, cybersecurity, disaster recovery and identity
management, thus benefiting data centres that provide essential data storage
and cloud services – driving further growth in enterprise communications in
2021.