Consumers show higher demand for 5G, and more Telcos desire non-core revenues

While consumers are still to understand if 5G networks are valuable for them, Telcos rather should concentrate their efforts on persuading the former that they should go for it.

The current stage of development of most the spheres of economy is generally described by the term “post-Covid”, and apparently the gradual economic recovery of 2021 will for sure support related transformations in enterprises and even networks. By these trends such changes as move to open RAN, digitalization and consumer entertainment consumption are meant. Moreover, the whole sector demonstrates higher resilience to the pandemic consequences compared to others.

Although the necessity of Telcos to deal with higher volumes of data due to pandemic made them essential for maintaining everyday life of millions of people, there’re also roaming revenues that have dropped, as well as handset replacement numbers, since the consumers have less alternatives to spend on. As a result, Telcos now think more thoroughly about their future commercial development and the paths they may choose from. The changes in digital strategies would also have its effect on 5G at some point.

In spite of harsh conditions imposes by the Covid-19 restrictions, almost 120 operators from 50 countries already launched 5G networks of different scales. These operators altogether contribute as 40% of worldwide mobile subscribers. Even though actual coverage of 5G is a way too below this level, these number show real potential of addressable market. However, the growth rate varies from country to country, and even from area to area.

End-clients’ demand has undeniably increased, but operators’ main objective now is to demonstrate the real benefits 5G is promising. Around half of recent survey respondents talk about plans of upgrade to 5G in foreseeable future. However, among the main reasons against this transition they mention lack of confidentiality in competitive advantages of the newest generation, which proves once again the necessity of operators to highlight and justify these advantages persuasively.

There’s no doubt that 5G is doing just great, both technically and financially, but in order to ensure its long life and financial success among the end-users, developers should really try their best to prove uninterrupted and stable growth of proposed benefits to eventually form a loyal database of clients which would then be the core of further development.