ITW Asia 2024: Key telecom trends for 2025

"The next 12-18 months will witness a pivotal shift in digital infrastructure. As AI, edge computing, and GPUaaS drive exponential bandwidth demands, our industry must balance scalability with sustainability. Enhanced interoperability and energy-efficient solutions will be essential.

"In APAC, addressing geo-political risks and network congestion will require innovative hybrid solutions, including subsea bypass routes and terrestrial connectivity. Collaboration across the ecosystem will be key to building the resilient, scalable infrastructure that powers our digital future."

"Along with cloud workloads, enterprises will have to start factoring in their AI workloads in their network decisions. If not sourcing compute infrastructure independently from GPU providers, they’ll increase their cloud spends to access compute resources from CSPs.

"Next, with more devices, more distributed operations, and remote work which results in greater use of the public internet, SASE and ZTNA will play a key role in ensuring that bad actors stay out of their systems. Lastly, in the APAC region, satcom will increase Internet access which will in turn, will increase the backhaul demand to serve this new wave of Internet users."

"The introduction of GPU as a Service (GPUaaS) in Southeast Asia will accelerate AI adoption across industries in APAC by providing scalable, cost-effective access to high-performance computing. This will drive innovation in sectors like healthcare, finance, automotive, and manufacturing, while also fostering talent development.

"As a result, internet bandwidth demand will surge, requiring more robust, high-performance network infrastructure, especially to connect AI and edge data centers in this region. However, submarine cable capacity within Asia and connecting to the US and Europe may remain a challenge through 2025, with some new projects delayed until Q1 2026."

"As the demand for green power continues to grow, Australia will get closer to Asia, emerging as a pivotal Indo-Pacific connectivity hub. Tech companies and data centre operators will look to connected and secure markets where they will trade off latency for sustainable energy."

"The next 12 months will be significantly influenced by the urgent need to integrate sustainability with the rapid technological advancements in AI within digital infrastructure.

"The industry must not only harness the power of AI to optimise network operations and enhance customer experiences, but also address the environmental impact of tech's growing footprint."

"The regional and wider international business environment continues to be affected by macro-economics and geo-politics.

"The regional digital infrastructure companies will continue to focus on maximising short-term returns and cost containment, while utilisation and demand continues to grow. Expect an increase in M&A, industry consolidation and partnerships to achieve the greater scale, interoperability and to drive seamless, cost-efficient end-to-end connectivity."