In the middle and late stages of 4G, with the decline of the demographic dividend and the pressure of national policies, it is becoming more and more difficult for operators to make profits from the increased traffic, and gradually fall into the predicament of increasing revenue without increasing revenue. In order to have more funds to invest in 5G development, operators urgently need to explore new business models as soon as possible.
Traffic-based business model
Compared with 4G, the peak transmission rate of 5G will be increased by 10-20 times, which will greatly optimize the experience of individual users in applications such as ultra-high-definition video, VR/AR entertainment, and smart home. According to Ericsson's June 2019 Mobile Market Report, the total mobile data traffic in China will reach 30EB/month by 2024, and the average data volume generated by each smartphone will increase from the current 7.1GB/month to 20GB/month.cell phone signal booster. Therefore, traffic revenue will still be an important source of operators' personal market revenue for a long time to come, but the method of charging by volume in the 4G era is difficult to meet the high-speed and soaring demand for data traffic. Vodafone, a British telecommunications operator, has put forward a new idea: charging according to the highest download speed. Enjoy unlimited data plans with download speeds of up to 2Mbps/10Mbps/150-250Mbps for £23/26/30 per month.
Slice-based business model
Network slicing is an on-demand networking method that allows operators to cut out multiple virtual end-to-end networks on a unified infrastructure, making different services more flexible. For example: smart transportation requires the network to have high reliability and low latency to meet its security; smart meter reading requires massive connection requirements to store and collect data; smart power requires the network to have large bandwidth and low latency for real-time monitoring and faults Positioning, such requirements can be divided into different lower-level sub-networks such as smart transportation, smart power, and smart meter reading under one mMTC sub-network. That is, slices can operate independently of each other through subnets to meet different network requirements in different application scenarios. In this way, operators can sell and formulate diversified network slices to various vertical industries according to their needs.
Platform-based business model
5G will not only drive the future of operators and telecom equipment manufacturers, but also the "Great Revolution" of business models that form cross-border alliances with all walks of life. At present, the three major operators are actively forming business integration with multiple industries. Take smart home appliances as an example. As a real-time data storage and analysis center, the platform needs to analyze and feedback the data of connected devices in a timely manner to monitor whether the device is normal operation. Once the operation data is found to be abnormal, the management function of the platform needs to remotely stop the equipment from working in time. Merchants can analyze equipment performance through the data collected by the platform, optimize and iterate new products, and can also accurately recommend more products and services to users through the platform.