Telecom transformed: shaping the future of digital service providers

Totaling over $780m, mobile data and fixed broadband represents 50% of the digital consumer services market. To maintain continued growth however, service providers now need to shift away from marketing speed and focus on the overall customer experience. By utilizing AI data analytics and fixed-mobile convergence technology there is no doubt service providers can bring fresh value to consumers, the key will be finding new ways to monetize that value.

In 2023 and beyond, CSPs need to prepare for a future world of connectivity & technology with no clean lines: everybody is a competitor, a collaborator, and a partner. Corporate boundaries are fading as technology development becomes more decentralized and disaggregated. The CSP traditional maker has performed well in a post-pandemic world, with CSPs collectively growing by nearly 5% in 2021 and most of 2022. Still, most growth opportunities reside in small and large technology pots outside CSP's sphere of control and influence: some structural reshaping will be needed.

When service providers start looking at vertical markets as new revenue engines, private 5G becomes a key solution in their arsenal. Yet, private networks is a complex market that has drawn the attention of multiple players including hyperscalers and system integrators and as such service providers need to fine tune their strategies and learn how to sell solutions not technologies to win in a highly competitive environment.

In 2022, CSPs will generate $150bn in service revenues from fiber broadband, but by 2026 this will be $215bn. 5G subscription revenues will grow to $540bn by 2026. Discounting revenue substitution as consumers and businesses move to fiber and 5G, recurring incremental service revenue gains from both fiber broadband and 5G will generate $150bn annually in 2026, making ours an industry raking in over $2 trillion in revenues every year. 5G and fiber broadband are powering huge growth, but most CSPs are grappling with fundamental business model challenges: they are spending more to get more. This needs to change, and few would argue CSPs are at the heart of change or digital innovation. It is clear CSPs need to decide now what they want to be in five years: best-in-class utilities, TechCos, service orchestrators, or a combination of all three.

The global market for enterprise edge services will more than double from a size of $97 billion in 2022 to $214 billion by 2026, growing at a five-year CAGR of 20.4%. This includes various network, security, storage, and computing services at the edge and any related integration, consulting, and managed services.

While the incubation and monetization of technology have always been vital for CSPs' commercial success, 5G and cloud transformation are driving the complexity curve to a level never previously experienced.

As a result, new challenges related to monetizing and securing cloud-based services will push CSPs well beyond their comfort zone. While new technologies such as AI will unquestionably play a role, the value of this and other emerging technologies are still unclear. Simply stated the stakes to successfully execute have never been higher.

6G promises to fulfil a profound transition that 5G has only just begun: a value shift from delivering connectivity to securing experience. Enterprise winners need to prepare for this reality now.

Totaling over $780m, mobile data and fixed broadband represents 50% of the digital consumer services market. To maintain continued growth however, service providers now need to shift away from marketing speed and focus on the overall customer experience. By utilizing AI data analytics and fixed-mobile convergence technology there is no doubt service providers can bring fresh value to consumers, the key will be finding new ways to monetize that value.