There is a consensus that 5G has the potential to revolutionize every aspect of our life. As 5G rolls out across the globe, new opportunities emerge for CSPs to develop new business models, use cases, and applications that use 5G’s high-speed, low latency, and always-on mobile connectivity. One of the surveys conducted by Qualcomm suggests that by 2035, 5G will enable $13.2 trillion of global economic output.

3G, 4G, and 5G Infrastructure

Communication Service Providers (CSPs) built their networks with the hope of generating revenue in 3G and 4G. But they were left with massive infrastructure bills, whereas device makers, and social media companies profited from the services. In 5G, CSPs are investing billions of dollars in building the networks and are trying to tap into 5G revenues by building their existing strengths for greater monetization.

5G monetization – leveraging partner ecosystems

5G monetization refers to the strategies, business models, and tactics that CSPs must put in place to earn revenue from their infrastructure investments.

Many of the 5G enterprise use cases revolve around the ability of CSPs to collaborate and co-innovate with the partner ecosystem. An effective partner ecosystem can help CSPs better support their customers’ growing needs with more comprehensive solutions, utilizing 5G and other advanced technologies such as cloud, IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Drones, Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) and much more.

A recent survey by Beyond Now reveals that 74% of the enterprises believe it is very important for CSPs to extend the level of collaboration across the ecosystem to develop solutions that will better fit their business needs and 86% of the CSPs recognize that third-party collaboration is important.

Major Industry use cases for 5G Monetization

1. Manufacturing: A manufacturer can use 5G to monitor the campus and production lines by streaming real-time data, and they can monitor exceptions on the production line, manage those exceptions, and correct them.
2. Oil and Gas: Oil and gas companies can use 5G to see if their stacks are getting too hot and survey the private property to ensure no unauthorized vehicles have trespassed inside. These allow them to get ahead of potential hazards or security breaches before they happen.
3. Healthcare: If a patient has a chronic health condition, a mix of IoT and 5G can help providers monitor a patient’s condition remotely in real-time outside of a healthcare facility. If there are any abnormalities found, the provider can contact the patient in near real-time and recommend the proper course of action, improving health outcomes.
4. Smart Cities: Smart cities are anticipated to bring new opportunities for CSPs. As a key connectivity provider, operators can leverage 5G technology to enable mass digitization of specific public services. Police officers with smartphones are enabled to send high-quality voice and videos and provision data for emergency services for governments in case of any crime and track the location of phones.
5. Automotive: Through 5G, cars can be enabled with features that will support direct communication between vehicle-to-vehicle, Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I), and Vehicle-to-Network (V2N).
6. Gaming: New gaming technologies are becoming a part of our entertainment, out of which Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality has stood out. It provides fun and excitement with its innovation and immersive experiences to gamers/users and gives amenities to telecom providers in the AR/VR ecosystem to monetize from 5G systems enabled with AR/VR.

End Note

The real monetization benefits of 5G for CSPs lie in the opportunity to consider the factor of monetizing 5G as they plan to implement it on a large scale with a variety of 5G-enabled applications deployed to support specific business needs. As new 5G services will be continuously developed, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) will find themselves in the zone of arising opportunities in every sector, from manufacturing to automobiles, healthcare to gaming to smart cities, and many more. However, MNOs who strategically play the game with the change of roles will be at the forefront of the race with new revenue streams in hand and achieve their business goals, expanding the vision of implementing 5G technology into a reality. For a very comprehensive understanding of STL can provide a 5G monetization solution read here.