New Revenue Opportunities for Telecom Companies

Is your telecommunication company at a tipping point of change? Leaders in the telecom space have the opportunity to diversify operations for greater revenue beyond their current models. Monetizing the flow of B2B sales data alone is projected to be valued at $33 billion by 2025, by strategically transferring data that most vehicles already record.

By adapting to these changes and leveraging new technologies, telecom companies can capitalize on emerging opportunities and stay ahead in a competitive market.

Why Does the Telecom Industry Need to Create New Revenue Streams?

The massive shift from cable television to wireless, data-driven services presents a unique, once-in-a-century opportunity. These industry changes, rather than being seen as challenges, should be viewed as avenues for growth and innovation.

However, avoiding these changes instead of embracing them could leave once-dominant organizations behind the curve. Telecom companies have already adapted to the Internet by adding mobile data to consumer-facing services that complement traditional phone packages—but this is just the beginning of a much larger transformation.

Internet-based services aren’t merely complementing traditional telecommunications services; they are set to replace them, especially among younger generations. Television is increasingly moving toward Internet content providers, mobile data is becoming integral to automobiles, and B2B companies seek to monetize the flow of information between interconnected devices.

Telecom providers have the potential to monetize all these shifts. What they need is a smart billing solution that can handle millions of connected devices, their components, and the flow of information between them. This transformation can even be achieved with legacy IT systems in place, which we will explore shortly.

Entertainment and Media Will Be Streamed Everywhere

The largest telecom companies already own significant properties in the entertainment and media space, but they often don’t compete directly with industry leaders like Netflix. With substantial capital, these organizations can invest in developing native platforms to attract subscribers and produce original content, thereby carving out a sizable market share.

Telecom companies are uniquely positioned to own or acquire the infrastructure that supports the entertainment vertical, creating significant cost savings by owning more of the value chain than competitors. This ownership also provides the ability to monetize the infrastructure for competitors and collaborators.

Telecoms can monetize content through various channels:

• Direct Consumer Revenue: Offering subscriptions and pay-per-view options.
• Third-Party Data Sales: Providing deep analytics and usage data to content producers.
• Data Plans: Charging for the data plans that facilitate content streaming.

All of this can be efficiently managed through accurate usage billing, ensuring that telecoms can capitalize on every aspect of the content delivery process.

Every Business Needs End-to-End Communication and Collaboration Services

The largest opportunities for telecom enterprises aren’t just in the consumer market—every business, regardless of size, needs internal and external communication solutions. This represents a clear revenue model for telecom companies, one that is currently evolving.

Organizations of all sizes are increasingly using internal communication tools, even small companies with four to ten employees. Consider these popular examples:

• Slack
• Skype for Business
• Microsoft Teams
• Basecamp
• Campfire

The scalability of these tools is their most valuable trait; they are equally useful for small agencies and large enterprises. Telecom companies can capitalize on this by offering packaged services or billing data by usage, tailored even for an entire office.

Similarly, most organizations require external communication and collaboration tools, including:

• Webinar Platforms
• Conference Call Solutions
• Video Call Software
• Live Video Capabilities

These tools are essential for sales, client meetings, and marketing purposes, all of which rely on phone lines and Internet connections that telecom companies already own.

By billing for the connection itself based on usage, telecom companies can offer outcome-based discounts or value-added services in combination with these communication tools. This strategy could become a competitive advantage for telecoms embracing usage billing and outcome-based billing revenue models.

eCommerce Will Evolve Alongside Mobile Technology

People have been paying with debit and credit cards for a long time, but now they’re also paying with their phones (e.g., Samsung Pay or Apple Pay). Telecoms have the opportunity to dominate the market for near-field communication (NFC) technology, which will play a central role in this shift. NFC technology isn’t limited to mobile phones; it can also be integrated with tablets, connected cars, and even smart clothing.

This opens up a new revenue stream for telecoms, allowing them to monetize everyday transactions for millions of people buying coffee, fuel, lunch, groceries, and movie tickets. The best part is that this revenue stream can operate on a usage billing model and work in conjunction with bill-on-behalf services, making it an attractive vertical for both B2C and B2B revenue models.

The IoT Will Make B2B Sales Data Lucrative in Most Verticals

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are eager to understand how their products perform and are willing to pay for insights from usage data. Telecoms can monetize B2B sales data for virtually any connected device using their mobile data plans, and they can bill for it based on usage. LogiSense enables telecoms to bill for the amount of usage data transmitted between components of devices, such as those in a smartphone or a connected car, in real-time.

This capability allows OEMs to see how their products perform daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally, quarterly, and yearly. They gain insights into exactly how often, where, and to what capacity their products are used.

This model is projected to generate $33 billion in industry revenue by 2025, just from the automotive industry. A single car can generate $100 worth of user data per day, presenting an opportunity that telecoms cannot afford to miss.

Leaders in the telecommunications industry face challenges related to scale, cost management, and competitive pricing. However, the ongoing changes in the space present opportunities to address these challenges rather than complicate them.

By investing in the value chain for the Internet of Things and usage billing solutions, telecoms can diversify their revenue streams through entertainment, office communication, B2B sales data, and mobile eCommerce.