With connectivity at the heart of industry transformation, 5G will have a key role to play — not just in the evolution of communication but in the evolution of businesses and society as a whole. On the road to 5G, operators will need to do more than just evolve networks; they will need to transform their business to address new opportunities.
Operators have excelled in connecting phones, tablets, and other devices, but connecting and managing growing numbers of cars, meters, machinery sensors and consumer electronics profitably will require innovative business models. Today, the vast majority of operator IoT revenues come from connectivity, but in the next 5 years, the revenue will also come from service enablement platforms, apps, and services. Operators capable of creating and managing an ecosystem of service partners, refining data from their IoT platforms and turning bulk data into smart data will be able to create incremental revenue based on the value of the data rather than just the volume.
IoT presents both operators and industries with a fertile ground for innovations and new ways of engaging their end customers. Key success factors will be the ability to launch new services with a short time-to-market from idea to commercial offering combined with the right business models and access to a rich array of complementary offerings from ecosystem partners.
