5G monetization

5G monetization challenges

With the advent of 5G, the very nature of the services being charged for is changing dramatically, and so monetizing IoT and other 5G services poses its own set of challenges: 

• 5G services are expected to be more complex than 4G services, with more components making up each service. A greater volume of service usage is also expected across all three 5G service families. As a result, the volume of transactions to be handled by monetization systems is expected to be orders of magnitude greater than what is currently handled by legacy systems.
• The volume of transactions to be handled by the monetization system is expected to exceed what legacy systems can currently handle.
• Many of the enterprise services defined thus far suggest that the 5G service provider requirements for cost per charging transaction will be substantially lower due to the low margins on each service. 
•  Many 5G services will be delivered in conjunction with partners and will require service providers to extend beyond their normal connectivity provider role. 

CSPs are now focusing on evolving these legacy monetization systems to effectively monetize 5G and gain a return on their investment in the network rollout with 98% of CSPs planning to alter their BSS to better support 5G. When it comes to 5G revenue growth areas, enterprise services and the B2B2X business model as well as an ecosystem approach will drive this. Roughly 60% of new revenue will come through the B2B2X business model highlighting the importance of partners and an ecosystem approach with 2/3 of enterprise opportunities requiring an ecosystem of partners. The tide is also beginning to change when it comes to CSP willingness to deploy monetization systems in the cloud with 70% of CSPs now willing to deploy on the public cloud.

Explore the findings of the 5G monetization survey

Create meaningful customer experiences

Every business is now judged against those who deliver Amazon-like customer experiences. Digital brands, or sub-brands, enable operators to pursue a multi-brand strategy and to create a tailor-made, often fully digital solution for specific customer segments. As a result, many CSPs have been able to significantly enhance their brand positioning and value for their customers.

5G monetization models: Leveraging partners and digital ecosystems for recurring revenue

With 5G, service providers will need to adopt new business models as they extend their capabilities with new types of product offerings. Many 5G use cases will require expertise beyond the traditional strengths of service providers. To address these use cases, service providers will need to develop (or acquire) new expertise or greatly expand their use of partners. Partners can play an important role in B2B2X scenarios, selling end solutions that incorporate offerings from the service provider for recurring revenue and potentially several other partners. Many other models exist, including cases where the service provider takes the lead and sells solutions that include components from partners. 

Pursue cloud-native monetization software

The CSP journey to the cloud is not new, but it is complex. Many of the initial cloud deployments were done at higher levels of the stack, such as customer engagement systems, in order not to disturb the business continuity supported by some of the legacy, highly customized BSS, with their monolithic structures and proprietary APIs. As CSPs deepen their investment in migrating to cloud-native software applications, moving to cloud-native monetization software is important to ensure greater business agility.