A recent whitepaper from Juniper Research reveals how telecom operators can maximize return of investment (RoI) from 5G networks.
Juniper Research also said telecom operators’ 5G service revenue will be touching a whopping $270 billion by 2025. Market research agency Ovum predicts that 5G subscriber base will reach 25 million by 2022.
Telecom industry association GSMA says China will have a 5G subscriber base of 428 million million by 2025.
The report from Juniper Research is an eye-opener for global telecom operators because the present concept of 5G is confusing to them because 5G does not promise proven use cases. Enterprises will be using 5G networks for healthcare sector monitoring, automotive sector, IoT, smart city projects, AR / VR, smart security, 5G mobile Internet, among other areas.
Since there is no strong use case that will encourage operators to roll out 5G networks, the industry needs investment from governmental bodies to encourage the development of these networks.
The telecom research report also revealed forecast on price of auction for 5G spectrum in select countries such as UK, France and Germany. 5G spectrum auction payments may be spread over several years. Operators will take several years to recoup their investment on 5G networks because 5G enabled connections will be too small.
Some operators will have the opportunity to conduct refarming of spectrum with the shut-down of legacy networks.
Because the majority of 5G connections will be users upgrading from 4G connections, there will be no increase in the number of the active SIMs arising from the introduction of 5G networks. 5G connections will initially carry a premium over ARPC (Average Revenue Per Connection).
Early adopters will be ‘top end’ users who are currently in the higher echelons of monthly spend. In the early years, the actual numbers of connected subscribers will be very low, rendering early trends less representative.
Telecom CTOs need to remember that the introduction of 5G services will take a different path to the implementation of 4G and the subsequent updates to protocols. Mobile operators cannot rely on previous methods of implementing 4G networks.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
