In our hyperconnected world, the threats of cyber breaches, network outages, and children’s exposure to illegal or harmful content and services aren’t just technical issues, they’re trust issues. Telcos sit at the heart of the digital ecosystem. They run the networks, platforms, and content pipes that connect people and deliver information. So they’re not just infrastructure providers, they’re gatekeepers—and in the eyes of the public, accountable.
Many telco leaders acknowledge that businesses and consumers no longer judge their companies solely on speed or coverage. They’re asking a more fundamental question: Can I trust you with my data, my privacy, my connection to the world?
As a result, telcos are being pushed to evolve from infrastructure providers into frontline defenders. Consider these statistics:
- Companies that experience trust-destroying events, such as accidentally leaking private data, will not recover their old trust levels even years later (in our 2024 study of corporate trust, fewer than 7% of companies recovered from a major trust decline). Instead, they become known for failing to protect their customers.
- Nearly 99% of global internet traffic travels through undersea cables, carrying data for billions of users and businesses every day. Protecting this critical infrastructure is essential to maintain global stability and security—and trust.
- Almost all children under 12 are now internet users, and 72% of children who access the internet have encountered at least one cyber threat, such as inappropriate content, bullying and harassment, unwanted sexual approaches, and hacking or phishing.
In my work, I’ve seen that even when telcos are not directly at fault, they’re often held responsible for failures within the digital environment they help create and maintain. As such, they have an extraordinary responsibility to keep businesses and individuals safe. As Marieke Snoep of KPN Royal Dutch Telecom said recently, “People feel safer on the streets than they do online.”
In this increasingly trust-sensitive environment, telcos can no longer sell bits and bytes at the lowest cost. They must become stewards of a more responsible, safer interconnected world.
How can companies achieve this? The first step is to assess their positioning on trust, safety, and resilience. Organizations typically progress through four levels on the trust maturity curve:
- Necessary Evil. The company acts on safety and privacy issues only when it is legally or reputationally required. Trust is handled exclusively by compliance functions.
- Nice-to-Have Service. The company offers some safety and privacy features, though these are not core to the value proposition.
- Competitive Differentiator. The company makes trust, safety, and digital responsibility integral to brand positioning, stakeholders view the company as trustworthy, and it becomes a clear source of competitive advantage.
- Embedded in the Business. The company and its employees act to maximize trust and protect consumer interests as a matter of course—even when return on investment is unclear—because it’s the right thing to do. Long-term value is expected to follow.
Most telcos are currently at stage 2, but industry leaders are moving toward stage 4. Telcos that view trust as a moral and strategic imperative are reaping the rewards of enhanced brand equity, customer loyalty, and resilience and changing the narrative around what it means to lead responsibly and profitably.
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After assessing trust maturity, it’s time to take action. Companies need to frame trust as a brand differentiator, a commercial opportunity, and a source of competitive resilience and then consciously build trust, safety, and privacy into their overall vision. Telcos that want to own the trust agenda should focus on these four priorities:
- Turn trust into a value proposition. Go beyond compliance to offer products and services that are marketed on safety, privacy, and social responsibility. Develop social media campaigns that are humanizing and responsive—showing not just that you provide a service, but that you stand for something. Think: “the safest network,” “the most transparent platform,” and “privacy-first content.” This positioning is not only attractive to families and the youth segment; it also attracts employees who want their work to reflect their principles.
- Make user trust a driver of engagement and retention. Move beyond vague privacy policies and opaque algorithms. Giving users clear, intuitive controls over how their data is collected, how personalization works, and how algorithms shape their experience isn’t just the ethical thing to do, it improves the user experience. Trust builds stickiness—users are more likely to stay where they feel safe, respected, and in control. This translates into lower churn, higher satisfaction scores, and better brand affinity.
- Leverage ecosystem partnerships. Collaborate with governments, NGOs, and peer companies to shape standards—and then lead the pack in adopting them. Being first to shape the trust narrative in a region or sector can deliver a strategic advantage and build regulatory goodwill. It opens the door to new business models, such as safe content bundles, verified platforms, and co-branded, trust-led experiences.
- Build investor-facing narratives around trust leadership. Frame trust not as a cost but as an asset that will future-proof your reputation, reduce volatility, and align with priorities from all stakeholders, including investors. Differentiate in markets where institutional capital is increasingly looking for social responsibility and long-term resilience.
The digital landscape is only getting more complex. GenAI, quantum computing, and fragmented global regulation are redefining what “safe” and “responsible” look like. The pressure on telcos won’t ease. New technologies will create new vulnerabilities, and public expectations will rise faster than policy can keep up.
Telcos should strive to become trustworthy partners that deliver their value propositions to a broad array of stakeholders (users, partners, employees, investors, regulators) in a frictionless manner. By gaining a trust advantage over their peers, companies can generate more economic value and outperform competitors.
Trust has become the new currency of competition. And for companies that fail to earn it, the cost is far more than downtime—it’s irrelevance.
