Forbes has reported on twelve 2012 predictions for the telecom industry. Among the predictions, the primacy of India and China; emerging market companies will gain ground in rankings at the expense of companies from developed countries; focus on machine to machine interfaces (smart grid, logistics); mobile subscriptions will exceed 6bn (half in Asia Pac alone); global broadband penetration will surpass 10% (0.7bn I assume), installed PCs will pass 2 billion; continued focus on cloud computing

What does this mean for corporate responsibility and sustainability in 2012 ?

Well, an ongoing issue with digital divide as some have broadband connected PCs and some only mobile phones. I suspect that in some ways this will always be an issue. As new services roll out they will inevitably be picked up first by those who are wealthier and already have better access. But there is a big positive in here too. 6bn mobile phone subscriptions in a world of 7bn people. Sure, some people have more than one mobile subscription, but overall this reflects a majority and ever increasing proportion of the population with connectivity of some sort. Mobile may not provide the same service as broadband, but with companies from emerging markets growing it becomes more likely that the services offered will be built to meet the needs of the population of those markets. This means more opportunity to deliver services such as education, health and economic value creation to help improve the lives of people.

And as cloud computing expands, the gap in between the processing value of my PC and the capabilities of a connected mobile device diminishes.

But also in 2012 as we see more and more connected consumers from emerging economies we will see growing aspirations to replicate our unsustainable lifestyles. Let’s hope that the opportunities afforded by ICT to support improved lifestyles at lower environmental cost will be enough to compensate. I hope that emerging economies will leapfrog Western society in this regard and be more successful at developing sustainable lifestyles. I hope that in the not too distant future, we in the Western world will be looking at today’s emerging economies as role models where they have reached our levels of wellbeing but we have learned from their levels of sustainability.

Machine to machine interfaces sounds so dry and tedious. But it is exciting. I think of throwing my clothes in the laundry and scanning the bar code on the box of detergent. The washing machine reads the chip in the clothes and shoots off to the cloud for advice on the optimum (lowest) washing temperature for the washing powder and clothing combination. At the same time, the washing machine checks the electricity pricing with my provider and using my preset preferences, determines when it will wash my clothes, for even lower carbon emissions and cost. My wife’s electric car has signaled to home and to the smart grid that it is close to home and needs a recharge. Our home energy control system takes that into account too as it knows from our on-line calendar that we are going out to a party shortly and need the car, so it delays the wash until the car is charged.

Lets just hope that that wash load didn’t include a clean shirt I need for the party !

This is only one example, but the possibilities of machine to machine interaction are endless and we can only start to imagine where they might take us.

2012 is only the next step, but it is going to be an exciting year.