Telecommunications: Securing Network Operations and Scaling 5G Collaboration 

The telecommunications industry is the backbone of global connectivity. But as networks grow more complex and cyberattacks become more sophisticated and more frequent, telcos face mounting threats and are under increasing pressure to ensure security, scalability, and network resilience. 

From nation-state actors targeting critical infrastructure to ransomware crippling network operations, telecom providers must defend against a rapidly evolving threat landscape. But as 5G investments accelerate, each operator’s attack surface expands as more connected devices, edge computing and IoT infrastructure, and software-defined networking introduce new vulnerabilities. 

In these high-stakes environments, real-time collaboration is critical for securing network operations, scaling 5G effectively, and keeping customers connected. When IT teams, field technicians, and security specialists are able to rapidly communicate and coordinate in real time, they can swiftly respond to outages, cyberthreats, and system failures. 

By leveraging secure collaboration tools, telcos can enhance incident response capabilities and improve network resilience while ensuring regulatory compliance. As 5G footprints get even bigger, seamless coordination will be key for protecting infrastructure, optimizing performance, and continuing to deliver reliable service to customers. 

5G and Network Expansion Challenges 

The transition to 5G is transforming telecommunications, and telecom operators are poised to continue investing heavily in these next-generation networks. While the 5G market commanded $78.45 billion in 2022, it’s expected to bring in $11.95 trillion by 2032, growing 65.4% each year. 

Coupled with this growth, 5G also introduces new security vulnerabilities that make networks more susceptible to cyberthreats. With an expanded attack surface, telecom providers must defend against increasingly sophisticated attacks. 

Beyond security concerns, the complexity of managing 5G networks also presents operational challenges. Incident response becomes more intricate as providers need to quickly detect and mitigate threats across a distributed network environment. Ensuring compliance with evolving regulatory standards adds another layer of difficulty to the mix, requiring telcos to implement robust security frameworks and real-time monitoring capabilities.  

In addition to these challenges, businesses and consumers expect uninterrupted connectivity, which means that maintaining network uptime is more important than ever before. 

To navigate this maze, telecom providers need to prioritize secure, real-time collaboration. By improving coordination between IT, security, and ops teams, telcos can enhance resilience, streamline incident response, and otherwise ensure their 5G networks remain reliable. 

Operational Risks Without Secure Collaboration 

Without secure collaboration, telecom providers expose themselves to serious operational risks that can compromise network reliability and security. A lack of structured communication slows down incident response and resolution, leaving teams scrambling to coordinate the next course of action as they share information across multiple channels — hoping that only authorized users see it, assuming they know where to find it in the first place.  

Unfortunately, the associated impacts of this inefficient approach are often severe; delays in addressing outages, cyberthreats, and equipment failures can lead to prolonged downtime, service interruptions, and increased costs. 

Managing remote field operations and distributed teams also becomes harder without a central secure collaboration platform. Technicians, IT staff, and security teams need to coordinate across massive networks; without dedicated real-time collaboration tools, inefficiencies can arise that weaken response times and operational performance. 

Additionally, the use of unstructured messaging tools — think email, consumer chat apps, and isolated dispatch systems — introduces additional security vulnerabilities and compliance risks. Without proper oversight, bad actors may be able to infiltrate systems and access sensitive data. At the same time, organizations may also struggle to meet regulatory requirements (e.g., GPDR, CCPA, and FCC regulations). 

To mitigate these risks, telecom operators need to adopt secure and compliant collaboration solutions purpose-built to improve coordination and increase resilience in high-stakes environments. 

How Secure Collaboration Bridges the Gap 

In mission-critical environments, secure collaboration is essential for bridging communication gaps between engineers, security teams, and technicians, ensuring a smooth, coordinated response to network incidents. Without a structured system, critical information can’t flow as quickly to teammates and could even get lost, increasing downtime and exposing telcos to additional security risks. 

On the flip side, with a secure, real-time collaboration platform in place, incident response and security teams can coordinate seamlessly during high-pressure scenarios, enabling them to work together efficiently to diagnose and resolve issues before they spiral out of control. 

Real-time secure information sharing also plays a critical role in maintaining compliance and ensuring operational efficiency. No matter where they operate, telecom providers are laser-focused on adhering to a host of strict regulatory requirements — like the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, the EU NIS2 Directive, and ISO 27001. Having a central communication platform designed for critical infrastructure operations ensures that sensitive data stays protected while meeting industry standards. 

What’s more, using the right secure collaboration platform also enables telcos to implement structured incident response workflows that accelerate time-to-resolution for network outages and cyber incidents. By automating response workflows and streamlining alerting, telecom providers can rapidly address threats that materialize, minimizing service interruptions while strengthening the overall resilience of their networks — a win-win. 

Ultimately, secure collaboration isn’t just about convenience. It’s about protecting critical infrastructure, ensuring uninterrupted connectivity, and growing the bottom line.  

Best Practices for Scalable Collaboration in Telecom 

To increase operational efficiency while keeping mission-critical data safe, telecom providers should adopt structured, role-based communication workflows that enable faster decision-making. By assigning clear roles and responsibilities, operators can ensure that engineers, security teams, and technicians can collaborate efficiently, reducing delays in resolving network issues. 

It’s equally important for providers to ensure their messaging aligns with telecom security mandates. Using secure, encrypted communication platforms helps protect sensitive data while meeting regulatory requirements. 

By implementing these best practices, telecom organizations can improve operational efficiency, accelerate incident response times, and scale collaboration to meet the growing demands of 5G networks — all while keeping their systems online and their customers happy. 

Why Telecom Providers Use Mattermost for Collaboration 

As 5G adoption accelerates, telecom providers need to nimbly navigate growing security risks and operational complexities. With larger attack surfaces and increasingly complicated regulatory requirements, telcos need secure collaboration workflows and faster incident response to keep systems protected, operational, and compliant. 

As an open source collaboration solution designed for high-security environments, Mattermost gives telecom operators a secure, structured collaboration platform to power mission-critical operations.  

What does this look like in the real world? 

Pramacom is a communications company headquartered in the Czech Republic that maintains a digital radio network for the country’s first responders, police, firefighters, and army units. They use Mattermost to protect their communications and keep their infrastructure operational around the clock. Learn more about Pramacom’s journey with Mattermost. 

Increasingly, telco operators interested in secure collaboration are turning to Mattermost because it’s: 

• Self-hosted. Mattermost can be deployed on-premises on infrastructure organizations manage, providing complete control of data. Unlike most cloud-only SaaS messaging solutions, Mattermost can also be hosted in a secure, single-tenant private cloud if the organization prefers.  

• Secure by design. Built with security as a core principle, Mattermost is secure by design, offering encryption, granular access controls, self-hosted deployment options, and more — all of which add up to ensure data protection and compliance with industry security standards. 

• Open source. Mattermost is open source and extensible, allowing teams to customize workflows and integrate with existing tools to minimize context switching and ensure secure collaboration at scale. 

• Compliant. Designed for compliance, Mattermost offers secure collaboration that aligns with industry regulations like GDPR, FedRAMP, DoD IL4, HIPAA, and more — enabling organizations to meet the strictest security and governance requirements. 

• User-friendly. With a familiar and intuitive interface, teams can use Mattermost productively out of the gate, delivering rapid ROI. 

Is your telco eyeing 5G expansion and wondering how to increase network resilience? Check out our Cybersecurity Incident Response Guide to learn more about how your team can keep your network operational in any circumstance.