World Telecommunication Day: It’s ‘Big Data for Big Impact’ for WTISD-17

The world is celebrating the World Telecommunication Day (WTD) today, which is May 17. The world has been celebrating this day since 1969. The main purpose of WTD is to enhance public awareness about the importance of communication and changes brought about by new technologies and internet. Another objective of WTD is to make communication and information accessible to people living in under-developed regions.

WTD celebrates the founding of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a committee formed in 1865 to support the then emerging communication methods. ITU works towards the improvement of communication in developing countries.

In November 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society called upon the General Assembly to declare May 17 as the World Information Society Day to focus on the importance of information and communication technologies (ICT). In November 2006, the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya, Turkey, decided to celebrate both events on 17 May as World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.

WTD is celebrated every year with a different theme. The theme for World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) 1997 was ‘Telecommunications and Humanitarian Assistance’, for WTISD 2006 it was ‘Promoting Global Cyber-security’, for WTISD it was ‘Connecting Persons with Disabilities’, for WTISD 2012 it was ‘Women and Girls in ICT’, for WTISD 2014 it was ‘Broadband for Sustainable Development’.

The theme for WTISD 2017 is ‘Big Data for Big Impact’ which focuses on the power of big data for development. Its objective is to convert unnecessary quantities of data into actionable information that can drive development. Big data innovations are changing the outlook of several industries, example, insurance, financial market, healthcare, etc.

Use Big Data and Analytics

Big data is a term used for extremely large and complex data sets which cannot be managed and analyzed using the traditional data processing methods. The big data tools process the data and help in analyzing data to disclose hidden patterns and associations which lead to the discovery of meaningful understanding.

The new big data processing application can help telecom sector in storing and processing huge volumes of data. Data analytics tools can conduct root-cause analysis of failures and disappointments on real-time basis. The sector can also use the tools to cluster, score and predict likely scenarios and help telecom industries take better investment decisions.