Ari Banerjee, SVP Strategy at Netcracker Technology, delivered insightful comments on 5G and how that can enable businesses to improve productivity.
Mobile services already generate enormous value for the global economy. A report by the GSMA estimates this value stood at US$4.5 trillion in 2021 but it will rise to US$5 trillion by 2025. Super-fast mobile 5G connectivity will be the foundation of this new worth. 5G represents more than just an upgrade on 4G; it is built on a cloud-based virtual core, delivering unprecedented speed and low-latency. 5G can also be ‘sliced’ to support many logical networks, making it the driving force of new markets in the consumer and industrial domains.
The revolution is under way now, with GSMA projecting that 5G will be available in more than 30 countries this year. However, Communication Service Providers (CSPs) will need more than connectivity alone to fully support their new enterprise partners. In the 5G era, CSPs must find ways to monetise quality of service and experiences.
The financial promise of 5G depends on the wide rollout of private network and/or network slicing. In a mature 5G market, enterprises across a variety of verticals will be able to run their own networks. This will allow CSPs to differentiate among offerings that share physical infrastructure and to properly support disruptive new verticals.
To achieve this, CSPs must move to a fully containerised cloud BSS – an essential component of their journey from telcos to techcos. Many legacy BSS systems are monolithic and are unable to take full advantage of 5G technology. By contrast, a containerized and modern BSS can bundle telecom and non-telecom services using a cloud-native approach. It can also enable CSPs to react faster to their customer’s needs by co-developing new features and making their own configuration changes with a no-code approach.
Cloud BSS should go beyond revenue management. It must support consumer, enterprise segments, and B2B2X business models by maintaining a distributed microservices architecture that eliminates single points of failure. CSPs should create slice-as-a-service (SlaaS) offerings to serve large B2B customers, enabling quick onboarding for any business type, full support for diverse partnership models, and greater flexibility in multi-partner settlements.
By making the necessary changes to their back-end systems, CSPs will be able to support the most appropriate charging models for emerging use cases. For example, in a connected hospital scenario, the CSP could support online patient monitoring, temperature tracking, AR-based remote consultation, waiting time predictions, and more. CSPs could then create flexible bundles in partnership with hospitals, medical device manufacturers, and insurance companies to deliver consistent experiences to patients.
Ultimately, CSPs and their enterprises all want the ability to create new services and to monetize them with ease and accuracy. This is the key to unlocking the promised $5 trillion, and the building process should start now. By rethinking all facets of the network and making the necessary changes to their back-end systems, CSPs will be able to help enterprises build new products and experiences, powering the disruptive industries of tomorrow.
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