Telecoms.com – Don’t hold your breath for 5G new revenue streams – Northstream
In an interview with Telecoms.com Bengt Nordstrom, CEO of telecoms consultancy Northstream, warned that not only is 5G likely to roll out slowly, but the benefits to CSPs will be mainly in the form of efficiencies rather than sexy new revenue streams.
“We are at a paradigm shift in the telecom industry where we, for the first time when a new generation mobile standard arrives, must focus on what efficiency gains and cost savings it can achieve for us rather than what new revenue streams it can create,” said Nordstrom.
“In a capex constrained operator market, we cannot expect them to rapidly roll out 5G when the revenue upside is very uncertain. Operator investments in mobile broadband have been extensive over the last 10 years but still operator revenues are declining.”