Operator revenue in the enterprise market

Tracking the journey, measuring growth

Based on a global survey of operator CEOs conducted by GSMA Intelligence, 70% of respondents agree enterprise is the incremental opportunity in the 5G era. We tracked a number of operators that report enterprise revenue to monitor their quest for this incremental opportunity. This report lays out the starting point to measure operator efforts to defend the traditional enterprise communications markets and capture growth in IoT, cloud, security and data analytics.

Enterprise revenue disclosure by operators is limited. However, we found that enterprise as a share of operator revenue varies between 10% and 50%. The majority of this revenue comes from traditional communications services.

IoT, cloud and security represent new revenue drivers but are currently contributing less than 10% to total enterprise revenue. Operators are adopting new organisational structures to accelerate this growth, from operating dedicated enterprise business units to vertical-focused subsidiaries or joint ventures. The goal is to serve enterprise requirements better, including those of SMEs. There is no single, best approach for every operator, but capturing opportunities in 5G and IoT will require a vertical-focused model.