Mobile operators today face a wide range of challenges. Saturation, competition and regulation have all had an impact on the industry, causing a drop-off in subscriber numbers year-on-year, in mature markets. By the end of 2017, average revenue per user (ARPU) for European mobile operators had fallen to $20.40 per month, down from $30 per month in 2012.
Operators are fighting to retain revenues, with subscriptions either flat or falling. And they also must defend against OTT players such as Facebook and Google which have cannibalised 10 percent of global revenues from the telecoms value chain.
5G offers the industry a lifeline: new services and customer segments could offset this recent decline. Heavy Reading estimates that, globally, operators are expected to invest over $200 billion in CAPEX on 5G networks between 2018 and the end of 2023.
The challenge will be to invest this money wisely. Many operators are still suffering a hangover from their 4G LTE investment, with a PwC survey estimating operators are wasting as much as 20 percent, or $65 billion, of their CAPEX.
The primary reason is that investment has been led by technological capability rather than identifying commercial opportunities and using that to guide investment plans.
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IoT Now Magazine, Khareem Sudlow
