Private networks and cellular IoT will be keys for operators to unlock $700 billion of new revenues from industrial 5G services community in the next decade, as industrial sectors look to drive digital change on cellular networking, reckons Ericsson. But operators must redefine their service remit, urgently, if they are to bolster their stagnating revenues.
This is the conclusion of a new ‘market compass’ report on 5G for industry from the Swedish vendor, which considers 200 use cases across 10 different industries.
Ericsson said enterprise 5G services will drive up to $700 billion of new revenues in the period. However, the total market, of 5G services for industry will be worth more than twice that, it said. The $700 billion operators can go for corresponds to 47 per cent of the total 5G business-to-business (B2B) market to be served by ICT players.
Ericsson’s ne w report considers a set of “5G-enabled B2B use case clusters” as drivers of industrial 5G revenues. Among these use case clusters, it said “enhanced video services” represents the largest opportunity for telecoms providers in terms of value across industrial sectors, worth up to 17 per cent or $118 billion of the total value by 2030.
But Ericsson said operators must extend their reach “beyond connectivity” and consider newer roles for their services and expertise within the B2B value chain, and “what use case clusters to address”. Operators must act urgently, it warned, if they are to capture new value from industrial transformation services, as revenues for existing airtime services will remain stagnant through to 2030.
It said that opportunities from selling 5G services to ‘vertical’ sectors, which are set on digital change, could add 35 per cent to operators’ revenues by 2030. Operators have five to seven years, it calculated, to redefine their positions with industrial 5G, leveraging private networks and cellular IoT (NB-IoT and LTE-M), while “roles and market shares are still being established”.
Jan Karlsson, senior vice president and head of B2B digital services at Ericsson, said: “The journey to grow the 5G business starts now by building momentum and identifying 5G-enabled B2B opportunities”
Ericsson looked at the following industrial sectors for its report: manufacturing, automotive, energy and utilities, public safety, healthcare, media and entertainment, public transport, financial services, retail, and agriculture.
Other use cases in the report, besides enhanced video, include real-time automation, connected vehicles, and augmented/virtual reality. It said use case examples building up these ‘clusters’ include live streaming of events, real-time monitoring of distributed energy, and autonomous cars.
