The Internet of things and big data analytics market represent key opportunities for mobile network operators.
This is according to a recent Juniper Research report, which says mobile network operators (MNOs) can realise an additional $85 billion in revenues over the next five years through the deployment and enhancement of non-core services including big data analytics and IOT (Internet of things) enablement.
Juniper says as the array of mobile content, services and delivery devices continues to evolve, MNOs face increased competition in arenas that were historically their sole preserve. With over-the-top players providing popular alternatives to texting and circuit-switched voice calls, the MNOs' core revenues are being eroded, it adds.
At the same time, they are struggling to effectively monetise the explosion in consumer data usage, which itself raises the problem of rising traffic costs, says the study. When related issues such as regulatory controls - pricing costs and net neutrality obligation and spectrum shortages are factored in, there is the very real issue, unless alternative revenue streams can be developed and costs reduced, a significant number of operators will cease to be viable, says Juniper.
PwC says there will be in excess of 27 billion connected devices globally by 2020, with the potential to create value from cost reduction and expenditure on new services to the tune of $4.5 trillion.
The study says there was a significant opportunity for operators to move beyond connectivity provision through selling customer data to clients in both raw and packaged (analysed) forms. It recommends that operators could monetise data models including pay-per usage, metered usage and results-based fees. In turn, clients would benefit from significant cost efficiencies and additional value per customer, resulting in a demonstrable return on investment on the analytics package, notes the research.
According to Juniper, for operators to maximise their monetisation potential from IOT device connectivity and enablement, they would need to ensure their forthcoming 5G networks are optimised for a multitude of connected devices. As the industry gets closer to commercial 5G launches, telecom operators will need to develop their own business cases based on thorough assessments of total 5G costs and potential revenue uplift, says 451 Research.
451 Research says telco and vendor bets on big-data-driven telecom data as a service (TDAAS) monetisation are growing, with several categories seeing real commercial payoffs. The TDAAS market - a nearly $80 billion market opportunity by 2020 - continues to evolve, with several use cases breaking out, including mobile advertising, population insights and location-data-enabled fraud detection, it notes.
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