Inside this issue:

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• TALKING HEADS: Juniper Research’s Sam Barker reveals where the new revenue opportunities lie for CSPs as 5G, private networks and new applications enabled by artificial intelligence and machine learning transform telecoms
• MESSAGING AND VOICE: Mobile authentication is driving increased business messaging volumes, reports Juniper Research
• CSP REVENUES: George Malim assesses how CSPs are engaging in new revenue opportunities as voice telephony loses relevance
• AUTOMATION AND ORCHESTRATION: VMware explains why effective automation and orchestration are the tickets to network modernisation and monetisation
• ANALYST REVIEW: Analysys Mason’s Caroline Gabriel explains why artificial intelligence is critical to CSPs’ bids to reduce energy consumption in the 5G era in our 7-page analyst review
• 5G AND WI-FI: Markus Nispel debunks the myths of 5G and Wi-Fi as he delves into the technologies’ complicated relationship
• PERSONALISATION: Sharifah Armirah explains how CSPs are using behavioural science to drive relevance and increase revenues

Editor’s Comment

Pay-per-ping over the cracks

New models demand new thinking, not just new names for the same old line items, writes George Malim.

With great excitement, the long-awaited massive part of massive IoT looks to be emerging into reality and communications service providers (CSPs) are avidly observing as however-many-million or billion new connections are added to their networks. They recognise not all of these are good things and many in fact permanently roam without paying the premium that consumers do. They also understand that this won’t be a permanent state and specific IoT connectivity services will be charged for.

Regrettably, for CSPs, each massive IoT device won’t have its own monthly cellular subscription in the same way as consumers. Certainly, a sensor in a truck won’t be topping up so it can Netflix and chill this evening. It’s also definite that the business case won’t stand having hundreds of thousands of devices paying consumer-style fees. I haven’t even mentioned whether a combine harvester can experience bill shock or not.

That’s because it’s well understood a new market that uses the network in a different way to the old market has different requirements that should be costed and billed for differently. This doesn’t mean a give-away rate for IoT any more than it means consumers will subsidise machine connections. Instead, it means learning to tie the provision of connectivity infrastructure to the value of the service it enables.

This means low latency, high speed connectivity for high value tasks that can bear the cost of this and best effort, non-prioritised connections for those that can’t. This is less divisive than it sounds even though there will be multiple classes of customer. It’s more a case of: ask not what the network can do for you but what you need – and can pay for – from the network.

To this end, models such as tracking devices that are provided on a pay-per-ping model don’t really move the needle for CSPs. Yes, it’s an interesting model for organisations that want to track their assets, people and cargo and they can set the frequency of pings and even the data covered in each ping. However, for CSPs to get properly excited they need far more than a million devices saying ‘Here I am and temperature here is 18 degrees’ to move on their revenue generation to an enhanced level. Any excitement about this is simply an attempt to paper over the cracks of lost voice revenues and commoditised data earnings in the consumer markets.

This issue is all about where the new revenues for CSPs will be. I hope you find our contributors’ searches interesting. Enjoy the magazine! George Malim

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