A new study found that operator-billed mobile voice revenues will fall from $354 billion in 2018 to $197 billion by 2023, an average annual decline of 10%. The recent research, Mobile Voice: Operator Strategies & Vendor Opportunities 2018-2023, identified a series of new opportunities which would enable operators to sustain, or even increase service revenues. To make this a reality operators need to use 5G & AI Enabling New Business Models to generate income.
Juniper argues that operators must adopt new ecosystems of converged technologies, including voice, messaging and digital assistants such as Alexa in order to capitalise on revenue streams for emerging voice services,
5G & AI Enabling New Business Models
Juniper identified 5G as critical for operators to slow declining voice revenues. It is expected that 5G connections will exceed 370 million by 2023; generating $88 billion in operator-billed revenues. This will be over 50% of the anticipated voice revenue loss. It also argued that operators could generate additional revenue through support for new voice services; powered by technologies such as Google’s Duplex.
Moreover, the research forecasts significant growth for OTT apps such as WhatsApp and Messenger. These apps will generate 15.7 trillion minutes of voice usage by 2023; equivalent to streaming 3.8 trillion music tracks. In response, Juniper urged operators to rollout voice technologies that offer superior benefits and are easily integrated into this CPaaS approach, such as VoLTE (Voice over LTE). Research author Sam Barker explained: “The OTT ecosystem is fragmented and, as a result, is unable to offer the same level of reach as operators. In order to maximise the OTTs shortfall in this area, operators must adopt the CPaaS approach to win back traffic, thus minimising future shortfall in revenues”.
