Why Network Monitoring Modernization is Crucial for Telecom Evolution

‍‍Drivers of change for telecom network monitoring

Regardless of where networks are deployed – either for telecom or enterprise - they have always needed to be monitored. They are expensive to build, complex to operate, and the traffic they carry is of great value to the organization. These are just a few reasons why network monitoring needs to be a core focus for IT teams.

This is especially true for telecom carriers, where the entire business is built around a network for transmitting voice between callers, and one could argue that their telephony networks have been impacted more by technology evolution than any other environment using data networks. By extension, the monitoring capabilities to support these networks have needed to evolve to keep pace.

My analysis here will review why network monitoring must evolve for telcos, and what modern capabilities should look like. Before doing that, more context is needed to explain why network monitoring is particularly important for telcos, and how their challenges are distinct from the networks used in enterprise settings. Three trends in particular provide that context.

Trend 1 – Telecom evolution

Most telecom operators are rooted in the world of analog communications with purpose-built networks to provide telephony services. As protected monopolies, these were closed, proprietary networks that ran parallel to – but not integrated with – data networks in enterprises. 

Telcos were in the voice business – not the data business – and their networks were built to optimize the performance of telephony. Operating in isolation from data networks, their network monitoring needs were relatively simple and easy to manage.

Legacy monitoring systems served telcos well until the advent of VoIP, when voice could be digitized, and became a data application that could now be routed over the same data networks as other forms of digital communication. From this point on, telecom networks had to evolve and integrate voice with other applications, requiring more complex monitoring. 

''Legacy monitoring systems served telcos well until the advent of VoIP...''

In time, this led telcos to shift from highly centralized, voice-based network architectures to hybrid models which are data-centric and decentralized by nature. This is a very different environment for telcos, where legacy monitoring systems were not adequate, and more modern approaches were required.

''...this led telcos to shift from highly centralized, voice-based network architectures to hybrid models which are data-centric and decentralized by nature.''

Trend 2 – Technology evolution

The days of operating a monopoly-protected, landline network - where the infrastructure was owned and operated end-to-end by the carrier - are long gone, and technology evolution has made legacy approaches to network monitoring obsolete. Mobile telephony was the first evolution wave to disrupt that model, where new cellular networks were needed to support an entirely different mode of telephony.

''...technology evolution has made legacy approaches to network monitoring obsolete.''

Not long after, the Internet was the next evolution wave, which laid the foundation for data-based voice services, and then the cloud. Not only did the cloud make it easier to tie telephony into other services and applications – and break free from being only premises-based - but it paved the way for hybrid networks, which all modern telcos have since embraced.

The impact of these new technologies is now well-understood, and illustrates just how much things have changed since the PSTN ruled. Less well-understood is the emerging impact of AI, the current wave of technology evolution. For telcos in particular, the bar for network monitoring will be even higher now. 

While AI delivers great automation benefits, these platforms are open and programmable – the exact opposite of legacy telco networks – so there is now far more network activity outside of IT’s purview. AI is also being used for autonomous task completion, meaning that even activity within IT’s purview needs to be monitored in new ways, all of which can compromise network performance if adequate AI guardrails are not in place.

''...even activity within IT’s purview needs to be monitored in new ways...''

Trend 3 – Subscriber evolution

The true impact of network monitoring will be most evident with subscribers, and technology evolution has transformed the user experience in distinct ways. Legacy telephony was primarily concerned with dial tone and reliable service. All subscribers got exactly the same service, innovation was minimal, and network monitoring demands were relatively simple.

With technology becoming more user-driven, subscribers now have endless choice for both carriers and features, along with raised expectations for personalization. Connectivity is just table stakes, and meeting the demands of today’s subscribers requires differentiated services. 

''...meeting the demands of today’s subscribers requires differentiated services.''

To stay competitive, telco networks need to support digital services platforms across all modes – not just voice – with personalized offerings at scale. IT leaders will need to take a more customer-centric approach to effectively modernize their networks, and this includes monitoring capabilities to manage all this complexity.

The problem set – 5 limitations of legacy monitoring systems

These three trends create a framework for the problem set that IT leaders must address with legacy monitoring systems and tools. This may still work well for monitoring PSTN traffic, but only in isolation from all the other forms of data traffic now running over telecom networks. 

A more holistic approach to monitoring is needed, and the starting point is to identify the limitations, along with the pain points that arise with legacy monitoring in today’s hybrid network environment. Here are five high-level limitations to set the table for that.

1. Limited network visibility   This encompasses many things, but the central issue is that IT cannot monitor traffic it cannot see. Legacy systems were not built for a world of encrypted traffic, and tunneled traffic utilizing VPNs and associated protocols like OpenVPN, WireGuard and VXLAN. Equally important is the need for end-to-end visibility, not just for how traffic flows through endpoints, but how subscribers interact with that traffic. With legacy telephony, there was no need to monitor the user experience, but today’s subscribers have higher expectations, and they will be at risk to carriers if IT cannot properly monitor their traffic, maintain security, and proactively manage issues as they arise.
2. Narrow focus on telephony   Monitoring PSTN traffic is still important, but it’s now a small part of the bigger picture as telcos build around hybrid networks. This traffic must be managed alongside traffic running over other networks – virtual, public cloud, private cloud, hyperscalers, SD-WAN, Open RAN for mobility, etc. A wider range of vendors will need to be managed, and without proper integrations beyond telephony, data will be too fragmented for monitoring systems to be effective.
3. Analytics  Legacy systems can provide real-time alerts triggered by analytics, but not much else. In analog times the stakes were not high, since telephony-only networks didn’t connect with other channels or data streams, so the impact was minimal and isolated. With telhephony now a data stream tied to other data streams, the stakes are much higher when network issues arise, such as supporting SLAs or maintaining compliance requirements. 

''With legacy telephony, there was no need to monitor the user experience, but today’s subscribers have higher expectations...''

Modern analytics need to be more proactive and predictive, not just to identify issues in real-time, but also to anticipate when other issues will arise - and with the help of AI - to remediate proactively. With all the complexity in today’s networks, IT leaders must rely on accurate and timely data to make good decisions, and this is where analytics capabilities become so important.

4. Manually based  Being rooted in the analog world, legacy systems had little automation, so most aspects of monitoring were manual, with complex rules written by humans and for humans. This meant that everything moved in analog time – configuring, updating, problem detection, troubleshooting, repairing, etc. With so many steps in the workflows being manual, human error is another factor that makes this model problematic for today’s network monitoring needs.
5. Scale and speed  When telecom was deregulated in 1984, the US market was served by regional “Baby Bells”, where service coverage was defined by the physical footprint of the network. The world of “facilities-based” carriers at that time was quite localized, and network monitoring needs were on a much smaller scale than in today’s borderless markets, made possible by the cloud and hybrid networks. 

On its own, scale is clearly a limiting factor for legacy monitoring systems, but so is another closely related factor, speed. The PSTN was built for voice, where the required throughput was only 64 kb/s. We all remember dial-up modems and how painfully limited the PSTN was for data services. Gigabit Ethernet has long been the standard, and as 5G evolves to 6G, and as satellite networks become part of the landscape, today’s throughput requirements are orders of magnitude beyond legacy monitoring capabilities.

The need for proactive network monitoring 

With the above limitations in mind, it should be clear why legacy monitoring systems fall well-short for what carriers need with today’s hybrid networks and ever-rising customer expectations. Modern network technology can help telcos evolve into digital services providers, but that transition will not be successful unless network monitoring evolves with it.

Perhaps more than any other performance attribute, the ability to provide continuous, proactive monitoring may be the most important of all. This is especially true when using AI to automate network monitoring tasks far more extensively than legacy systems ever could. Then, for being proactive, agentic AI allows monitoring tools not just to notify IT about issues in real time, but also to take prescriptive action to manage the issue autonomously.

''...the ability to provide continuous, proactive monitoring may be the most important of all.''

To illustrate, here are three ways that proactive network monitoring can support core business objectives for telcos.

1. Reduce operational expenditures  Telecom networks are capital-intensive by nature, and nothing drives up operating costs more than downtime. With hybrid networks, service disruptions could come from any combination of sites, and there are too many permutations for manual, legacy systems to keep track of. Proactive monitoring means real-time tracking of all the touchpoints that could trigger disruptions or outages. Not only is this needed to protect SLAs, but to prevent unbudgeted expenditures to restore uptime.
2. Optimize network performance  The starting point for doing this is forecasting traffic volumes and patterns, as this determines where resources are best deployed. With proactive monitoring, traffic anomalies can be detected and responded to before they become problematic. Not only does this help optimize network performance, but it reduces maintenance costs by catching issues before they do harm to the network. Also by proactively monitoring all traffic streams, IT can prioritize where attention is most needed based on the potential impact if not detected until later.
3. Improve customer experience  This may not be a concern for legacy networks, but it’s a strategic priority for modern telcos. Today’s market is too competitive to take customers for granted, and with proactive monitoring, telcos can track CX in terms of service quality, secure connectivity, adequate throughput, system updates, etc. Customer-centric telcos have made this a priority, as they understand how important these network-based capabilities are for retaining subscribers, upselling them on new services, and reducing churn. Given the strategic importance of CX, IT’s value to the business will be gauged just as much on this basis as for maintaining network performance on a high level.

''...with proactive monitoring, telcos can track CX in terms of service quality...''

Core capabilities for modern network monitoring solutions

Given the complexity of today’s networks, modern network monitoring solutions will have a more extensive range of features compared to legacy systems. This article is not intended to provide a comprehensive feature set, but in terms of the monitoring limitations telcos must address when modernizing, here is a core set of capabilities that IT needs to consider.

Real time alerts  

This is not a new feature, but with hybrid networks and a decentralized architecture, much deeper visibility into the network is required. Compared to monitoring telephony on a voice-only network, the range of anomalies is far greater now, both for network operations and service quality. There will be more alerts to monitor and respond to, and with that comes performance metrics for IT. A good example would be MTTR – Mean Time to Resolve - where the lower the score, the faster IT is responding to alerts and taking remedial action. This is an important metric for IT performance, and the starting point is getting timely alerts. Another would be for monitoring network throughputs, where bandwidth consumption, latency or packet loss would trigger alerts when they impact data transfer speeds that impact service quality.

''...as they understand how important these network-based capabilities are for retaining subscribers, upselling them on new services, and reducing churn.''

Reporting  

With hybrid networks, data outputs are much more extensive and complex, so reporting requirements will be more demanding. Historical reporting is a given, not just to support day-to-day operations, but to flag priority issues and provide the relevant data needed to make network management decisions. Aside from the content of the reporting, IT leaders must also consider the UI and how the outputs are presented. Dashboards need to be intuitive to navigate, especially when real-time decisions are being made about complex issues. Many aspects of newer communications technologies will not be native to everyone using this data, so reporting tools need to be understandable for varying levels of networking expertise.

''...data outputs are much more extensive and complex, so reporting requirements will be more demanding."

Analytics  

Data is at the core of modern communications networks, and now with AI, the volume and complexity of data is well beyond the PSTN. Telemetry analytics provide the intelligence for network monitoring, especially for proactive capabilities. There will be endless data sets to manage, but the bigger picture is about how analytics can be used for predictive maintenance, forecasting traffic levels, and prioritizing issues posing the biggest risk. When analytics can detect anomalies in traffic patterns that will lead to network failures, maintenance can be scheduled during off-peak times, keeping repair costs down, and extending the life of the network. 

Orchestration 

This is far more complex with hybrid networks, not just for monitoring traffic across different network environments and integrating across systems, but also for automating workflows that support real-time services. AI now plays a central role here, as does the use of topology mapping tools to provide a live visual representation of network activity, along with flagging potential problems such as traffic bottlenecks,  security vulnerabilities, and pinpointing fail points.

Key implementation challenges for telco network leaders

In reaching a conclusion to this analysis, network leaders for telcos must consider the realities they’ll face when modernizing their network monitoring capabilities. There will be implementation challenges that were less of an issue with legacy networks, and new considerations for choosing the right technology partners. 

To this point, the analysis has established the need for IT to modernize network monitoring, and why proactive capabilities are so important. When it comes to adopting new systems, however, this is not a matter of flipping a switch or checking off boxes. Here are five challenges and considerations that will go a long way for IT to get this right.

1. Be open and flexible   First and foremost, network monitoring needs will now be more complex. You will have to manage a growing range of network types – premises-based, cloud, 5G/6G, satellite – and all the various protocols that each must support. This is the nature of decentralized, hybrid networks, and there will always be more network pieces to support. Being open and flexible when deploying network monitoring, it is a different mindset from the closed world of legacy telecom, and IT will have to adapt.
2. Addressing data sovereignty   This was never an issue with legacy telecoms, but hybrid networks are borderless, and as data becomes a strategic asset in today’s digital economy, this is now a must-have. Aside from being a compliance issue for regulators, this capability builds trust with subscribers, making them more likely to buy new services from you. The more global your network footprint – and your subscribers – the more important this will be for network monitoring.
3. Dealing with data silos   Most organizations operate as a collection of silos, including telcos. This structure may have worked well for PSTN, but not with hybrid networks. Telephony is now just one of many data streams running across a variety of networks, and they all have to be monitored in real time. This will likely present new challenges when integrating a network monitoring system across all of your platforms and operating systems.
4. Plan for scale   As telcos evolve into techcos, the business model shifts from telephony to digital services. On its own, telephony is a commodity, but in the digital world, voice can take other forms and drive new revenue streams. This scales the amount of data to be monitored, and AI adds another step-level of data to that. These volumes will only increase with AI adoption, and as networks support faster data throughputs. As such, IT leaders need to think about network monitoring on a higher scale than with legacy telephony.
5. Prioritize security and privacy  This may seem like an understatement, but with hybrid networks and digital services platforms, the stakes are much higher than with the PSTN. Aside from there being so much more data to protect, bad actors are more proficient at targeting that data. No amount of regulation will deter these threats, and proactive network monitoring will be your last – and most important – line of defense. As with data sovereignty, this is very much about earning trust with subscribers, and protecting your revenue streams.

Telecom networks have evolved from closed, voice-centric systems into complex, decentralized environments spanning cloud, mobile, hybrid, and emerging AI-driven technologies, making legacy monitoring tools increasingly inadequate. Limited visibility, fragmented data, manual processes, reactive analytics, and constraints around scale and speed prevent these systems from meeting today’s operational and customer demands.

Modern network monitoring must therefore be continuous, proactive, and increasingly automated, combining real-time alerts, advanced analytics, intuitive reporting, orchestration, and AI-driven capabilities to anticipate and remediate problems before they affect service.

By modernizing monitoring while addressing challenges such as interoperability, data sovereignty, silos, scalability, security, and privacy, telcos can reduce operating costs, optimize network performance, protect subscriber trust, and deliver the differentiated digital experiences needed to compete as they evolve from traditional carriers into digital service providers.