Communications

The communications services industry includes companies across a broad range of technology modalities, including major internet service providers, wireless providers, broadband companies, cable companies, and more. 

As social media platforms continue to grow and merge their service offerings with other providers, there is an increasing degree of crossover between the communications services industry and communications technology.

Cybersecurity, business disruptions, and climate change are some of the major risks facing the communications services industry today. 

Cybersecurity exposures have dramatically increased in recent years, as the pace of technological implementation and widespread usage has greatly outstripped the pace of security measures intended to keep users’ information and the networks they rely on secure and resilient to outages. As more and more of our lives involve technology, cyber resilience will be a major focus of risk mitigation efforts for communications services companies.

Communications services companies are also finding themselves more vulnerable to services outages from natural disasters, power and other infrastructure failures, and technology failures. No matter the cause of an outage, communications services companies – and the vendors they rely on – can face contractual liabilities and reputational risks.

Related to this would be climate change risk. The increase in frequency and intensity of many wildfires, floods, and tropical and winter storms that can compromise transmission equipment means that there can be increased repair costs to contend with, but also greater investments needed to improve the resilience of vital infrastructure.