While fixed line recording has been prevalent for over 25 years in Capital markets, mobile recording is the relative ‘new kid on the block’ after a regulatory change in 2011. Today, we see mobile use accelerating faster than ever and as Gartner includes a reset of outdated work processes as one of their top strategic predictions for 2021 and beyond, we take a look at how remote working has impacted mobile call recording solutions.
The journey so far from 1G to 4G
Mobile networks have evolved since the 1980s and with every generation (or “G”), we benefit from faster speeds. 1G used analog signals and began at a time where mobile technology was still taking shape. Characterised by poor battery life and even poorer voice quality, calls often dropped off and network signal was patchy at best. When 2G was introduced, the promise of digital signals also meant wireless transmission and features like SMS, call holding and conference calls.
3G was released into the world in the early 2000s boasting internet searching, social media and video calls. With improved reliability and greater data capacity, mobile phones became a viable tool for business use. As 4G was introduced into the market, this high-speed mobile network enabled users to make calls using data. Long-Term-Evolution (LTE), in other words wireless broadband, services become standard practise.
The era of mobile communication in capital markets had very much arrived.
Carrier networks struggled with the remote working surge
While mobile use had been growing steadily before 2020, the pandemic accelerated this trend tenfold. In the global shift to home offices and employees started to work remotely, network carriers struggled to cope with call volumes. More and more users were making calls using their 4G data plans instead of mobile signals.
With so many users working from home, several of our client’s carrier networks struggled to meet the increased demand for mobile capacity. This resulted in our users complaining of dropped calls, poor quality and connections taking too long to set up. In response to this, we set our development team a challenge to reinforce our existing solution to include a way to guarantee call coverage, without the heavy reliance on phone signal.
And they delivered!
Recording WIFI calling and Voice over Long-Term-Evolution
VoxSmart developed and deployed enhanced features for recording calls made over WIFI connections. This enabled users to make compliant calls using data networks when mobile signal was unavailable. This allowed users greater coverage where no mobile signal was found, for example in home offices. This also reduced the reliance on the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and legacy carrier technology such as 2G and 3G services, meaning inbound calls were received quicker and with better quality audio.
5G and beyond: Gartner’s predictions for the future
Now 5G has arrived with the goal of supporting our growing Internet of Things. While still relatively new, the next generation aims to deliver decreased latency and improved performance and consistency. With businesses depending on fast and reliable connections to conduct their business on a global scale 5G will form the bedrock for giving and receiving critical information, almost instantly.
Likewise, Gartner’s 2021 and Beyond predictions state that new organizational value comes from monitoring. In their annual strategic predictions for IT organisations and users, the analyst firm expects 75% of all work related conversations will be recording and analyzed by 2025. This not only means firms will have the capability to capture business communications but actively monitor those conversations for organisational value or risk purposes.
In a world of remote working and evolving working practises, mobiles will remain an essential communication source and being able to reliably record calls, regardless of the network or signal protocol, will be paramount as businesses and technology evolve.
If you’d like to hear more about any of our Mobile Capture and Communications Surveillance solutions,
request a demo today with one of our team.
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