The Foundation for Network Monetization
Having made significant recent investments in network infrastructure, Communications Service Providers (CSPs) need to monetize such investments through new revenue streams from both existing and new sources. With consumer revenues under pressure, focus turns more to the wholesale and enterprise opportunity and, in particular, to communications-enabling applications in vertical industries (e.g., healthcare, public safety, etc.) to afford such applications greater reach or fundamentally enable new capabilities to drive higher value to their end customers. In turn, the opportunity for CSPs is to command a greater share of that increased revenue pie, but only if they can meet the needs of such vertical industry applications, including providing dynamic, on-demand connectivity with the appropriate reach, cost, and quality of service (QoS) for ease of consumption by such applications.
Finding the right starting point: AIOps as a foundational step
For the network itself, a cloud native foundation is critical to this transformation. It offers the agility, automation, and scalability—in addition to real-time observability—needed to manage modern network demands efficiently. By embracing cloud native architectures, CSPs can streamline operations, accelerate innovation, and enable new business models that drive long-term growth in the 5G era. The appropriate exposure of network capabilities via network Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), in particular, plays a pivotal role by enabling enterprises and developers to harness 5G's advanced capabilities such as differentiated connectivity, ultra-low latency, and precise location services. These capabilities empower the creation of innovative business models, while also opening new revenue streams for CSPs through API monetization.
