Manufacturing and financial services offer the greatest opportunity for telcos driving enterprise digital transformation
A new report from GSMA Intelligence launched recently ahead of MWC Las Vegas – “The opportunity for operators in B2B technology services – sizing prospects for growth in financial services, manufacturing, automotive and aviation” – highlighting an addressable market of more than $400bn for telcos looking to grow revenues in the enterprise space. This equates to approximately 35% of the existing mobile operator revenue base worldwide.
The report also shows thattelcos need to look beyond connectivity driven solutions and services and take a broader view of the opportunity. Core telecom solution and service areas, such as SD-WAN, unified communications and mobile voice and data, currently contribute around 70% of B2B revenues or $250bn for operators in 2023, although they offer little headroom for growth with just 3% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) expected out to 2030.
Conversely, enterprise spending on tech services beyond those core services – including cloud and datacentre, cybersecurity, IoT, analytics, AI, blockchain and network APIs – is around five times the spend on traditional communications at $1.16tn in 2023, with a CAGR of 14% to 2030, growing to become a market worth $2.91tn.
Tim Hatt, Head of Research, GSMA Intelligence, said: “Telcos looking to monetise their investments in 5G need to look beyond consumer centric and basic connectivity driven use cases. Greater focus is needed on offering advanced network solutions such as network slicing and private networks in the short term and developing end-to-end solutions to support a variety of enterprise use cases combined with integration capabilities in the longer term. Enterprises are increasingly looking for service providers to integrate a blend of technologies that fit their specific technology environments and business needs. Though the competition is fierce, telcos have assets and capabilities they can leverage to play in over one-third of this trillion-dollar market.”
Manufacturing and financial services offer biggest opportunities
The report highlights characteristics of four key verticals: financial services, manufacturing, automotive and aviation. In 2023, these sectors presented significant addressable opportunities for telcos, valued at $59 billion, $61 billion, $22 billion and $16 billion respectively. Collectively, they accounted for 37% of the total addressable market opportunity, amounting to $159 billion. Projections indicate robust growth for these markets, with expected CAGR of 10.9%, 12.1%, 12.0%, and 8.4% from 2023 to 2030.
Other markets comprised 63% of the telcos’ growing addressable enterprise tech services beyond core opportunity. This growth is driven by diverse verticals, including healthcare, public sector, retail, media, smart cities, energy and utilities, agriculture, oil & gas, transportation & logistics, professional services, personal & consumer services, mining and ports.
Jo Gilbert, Technical Director and GSMA Connected Manufacturing and Production lead, said: “To bolster operational efficiency, resilience, agility, and flexibility, manufacturing companies are investing in advanced connectivity, IoT, edge, and AI technologies. These innovations are generating massive data volumes across factories, requiring stronger data management capabilities to unlock business value. Furthermore, the growing convergence of IT and OT systems has expanded cyberattack surfaces, making cybersecurity a key priority for manufacturers.”
Telcos must be prepared to compete with a diverse array of players
To meet the demands of the market, operators face significant competition not only from their peers and equipment vendors, but also from a broad array of players, including hyperscalers and security vendors. In fact, 24% of operators view hyperscalers as formidable competitors in edge networking and cloud, while 41% view security vendors as key competitors in security.
Operators must invest in building new capabilities, enhancing their existing offerings in key areas like security and exploring partnerships in others such as cloud. By balancing internal investments with external partnerships, operators can remain competitive, optimize resources, and meet the evolving demands of the market.
Hatt continues: “Winning in market needs a new mindset and operational changes. To succeed operators must look to collaborative approaches and new partnerships as well as adopting an enterprise-centric solution-oriented approach; being more like IT consultants than connectivity sellers. Telcos need to consolidate and simplify enterprise portfolios, adapt sales and marketing, and acquire new technical and commercial skills to effectively serve ever-evolving needs of enterprise customers.”
Services beyond connectivity are gaining ground
The latest research tracks with earlier findings from GSMA Intelligence’s “Enterprise Opportunity 2024” survey, published in March 2024, where 36% of the operators said market leadership in enterprise connectivity and services is the primary goal of their B2B strategy; with leadership in enterprise connectivity second. Historically, connectivity has received the highest share in previous editions of this survey. This is the first time operators have identified connectivity and services as their primary goal. Furthermore, a majority (64%) of participants said they have already launched 5G services beyond connectivity for enterprises such as 5G IoT, private networks and Mobile Edge Compute. This signals a shift in focus towards services and the need to be good at bundling connectivity with services fit for enterprise needs.
