5G monetisation lessons from China and Korea
Tefficient’s 26th public analysis on the development and drivers of mobile data ranks 105 operators based on average data usage per SIM, total data traffic and revenue per gigabyte in 2019.
Continue reading The gig economy: 58% more gigabytes generated 0.4% more revenueThere are two types of operators when it comes to 5G: Those who act and those who wait.
Management of the latter type are often quoted saying that it’s within B2B that 5G will make a difference. It seems to be an excuse for not taking any action on B2C – or even for not taking any 5G action at all.
Continue reading The steps to a 5G successLobbyists coined the term “the race to 5G”. If there ever was such a race, South Korea won it as unlike other markets there are – read on – many reported numbers to support a leadership claim. With 4.7 million 5G subscriptions by the end of 2019, 7% of Korea’s mobile subscribers used 5G just nine months after launch.
The subscriber take-up has been fast, but not linear. In August, September and October, when Samsung launched three new 5G smartphones (Note 10, A90 and Fold) and LG updated its V50 smartphone, 5G sales was exceptionally fast. During November and December no new smartphones were introduced and South Korea missed the expectation of 5 million 5G subscribers by year end 2019.
Tefficient’s 25th public analysis of the development and drivers of mobile data compares 42 countries from all regions of the world.
Usage is growing in every single country, but few are able to turn this into ARPU growth.
Continue reading Updated: Usage up, but monetisation falters. 5G a chance to level up.Without subscription growth it’s difficult for mature market operators to report service revenue growth.
Some operators – anxious to still show growth – have thus begun to regularly highlight their fixed-mobile convergence base in quarterly results presentations. It’s most often a smoke screen. Here are seven examples – of which six aren’t growth stories.
Taiwan: Unlimited is so last year – Korea: 5G boosts usage
Tefficient’s 24th public analysis on the development and drivers of mobile data ranks 115 operators based on average data usage per SIM, total data traffic and revenue per gigabyte in 1H 2019.
The data usage per SIM grew for all; everybody climbed our Christmas tree. More than half of the operators could turn that data usage growth into ARPU growth – for the first time a majority is in green. Read our analysis to see who delivered on “more for more” – and who didn’t.
Speaking of which, we take a closer look at the development of one of the unlimited powerhouses – Taiwan. Are people getting tired of mobile data?
We also provide insight into South Korea – the world’s leading 5G market. Just how much effect did 5G have on the data usage?
Continue reading Mobile data consumption continues to grow – a majority of operators now rewarded with ARPUReference: Analysis and Go-to-market, 2019
Nowhere else in the world will you find as many 5G users as in South Korea. Nowhere else will you find as many 5G base stations up and running. If there ever was a race to 5G, the Korean government and industry won it.
Seeing is believing: After having dug up, read and compiled all reporting and data on Korea’s mobile business there was no other way forward than to seeing it for ourselves and interview people involved in creating Korea’s ‘5G wonder’.
We spent eight busy days (11-18 July) in Seoul to finish a comprehensive 106-page analysis – full of graphs and photos – with recommendations for European operators.
Continue reading How South Korea’s operators drive demand for 5GThis is tefficient’s 23rd public analysis of the development and drivers of mobile data.
Mobile data usage is still growing in all of the 39 countries covered by this analysis. Two countries stand out – China and India.
But China and India aren’t yet challenging the usage top – where the two unlimited superpowers, Finland and Taiwan, still reign.
Data-only remains a key driver for overall usage and new figures from Czech Republic, Latvia, Finland and Austria add insight to the extreme usage pattern of fixed wireless access.
Continue reading Prepping for 5G: Monetisation model and FWA define usageThis is our fourth comparison of the mobile network experiences in the Nordics based on performance data from Opensignal. There are more details and background is the previous (one–two–three) blogs.
This time the data is gathered from March to May 2019. The data has not been published by OpenSignal but has been shared with us through Opensignal’s analyst program.
The graph below ranks the fourteen operators in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland after how large proportion of time 4G capable devices have been connected to 4G. Opensignal calls this 4G availability.
Reference: Go-to-market, 2018-2019
Conducting and transcribing 22 interviews with 23 senior executives from telecom operators, handset and chip manufacturers, start-ups, academia and think tanks on the potential of 5G for consumers.
These interviews were, alongside focus groups, used as input to design Ericsson ConsumerLab’s consumer research ultimately covering 22 countries and over 35000 smartphone owners globally.
The interviews form an integral part of the 5G consumer potential report as issued by Ericsson ConsumerLab in May 2019. All interviewees are named in the report. Thank you for your kindness!
Continue reading Interviewing 23 executives and experts for Ericsson ConsumerLab research on 5G consumer potential