Mobile Operators Should Take a Leaf Out of OTT Service Providers’ Book for Future Growth

​ABI Research believes the struggles of mobile operators will become more intense, as worldwide capital expenditure and operating expenditure grow due to 4G services while average revenue per user (ARPU) is in continual decline.

“The only way to achieve organic growth is to provide more value-added services, and Machine to Machine (M2M) is definitely one of the areas with tremendous opportunities,” commented Lian Jye Su, Research Associate at ABI Research. ABI Research forecasts that the M2M market, also called the Internet of Things market will grow to US$174 billion in 2019, a 200% growth from 2014.

There are a range of value-added services in M2M including device and connectivity management, application development, device cloud services, data management, analytics, device design / development, and professional / consulting services. MVNO and M2M infrastructure providers such as Aeris, KORE, Numerex, and Wyless are all adding new services and repositioning as M2M solution providers. At the same time, mobile operators are competing with over 20 years of experience in M2M. In September 2014, AT&T announced its global SIM solution “Single SIM Solution”, which enables enterprises globally to connect devices, machines, and others via a single platform. Apart from M2M, AT&T is also actively involved in digital content and enterprise cloud solution.

ABI Research has identified six potential new growth areas for mobile operators: digital content, M2M, mobile money, big data monetization, advertising, and enterprise cloud solutions. “We strongly believe that mobile operators can no longer rely solely on the growth of data revenue, as the growth is unable to reverse the current trend of decline. Mobile operators must start to develop new skill sets in order to compete for new revenue,” added Jake Saunders, VP and Practice Director of core forecasting.

Detailed profiling of successful OTT and Mobile Telco players can be found in ABI Research’s report, Maximizing Mobility Revenue: Telco versus OTT Service Provider. The report also provides market size and growth forecasts for the other five sectors and insights on successful mobile operators and OTT service providers.

These findings are part of ABI Research’s Mobile Deployments, CAPEX, and Traffic Market Research.

ABI Research provides in-depth analysis and quantitative forecasting of trends in global connectivity and other emerging technologies. From offices in North America, Europe and Asia, ABI Research’s worldwide team of experts advises thousands of decision makers through 70+ research and advisory services. Est. 1990.For more information visit www.abiresearch.com, or call +1.516.624.2500.