GSMA Intelligence Sees $400 Billion B2B Opportunity

GSMA Intelligence forecasts that B2B technology services present an addressable revenue opportunity of more than $400 billion for operators. It has also cautioned that operators must move quickly or risk losing out to hyperscalers and security service providers.

The research organization highlighted a need for operators to move beyond traditional core connectivity services including SD-WAN, unified communications, and mobile voice and data. GSMA Intelligence stated the services contributed around 70% of operators’ B2B revenue in 2023, around $250 billion, but predicted little opportunity for growth with a CAGR of 3% expected until 2030. By comparison, spending on services beyond core offerings was around five times more than traditional communications at $1.1 trillion in 2023 with a CAGR of 14% predicted to take the market to $2.9 trillion by 2030.

GSMA Intelligence listed cloud and data center, cybersecurity, IoT, analytics, AI, blockchain, and network APIs among the services fuelling gains. Tim Hatt, head of research at GSMA Intelligence, explained operators need to shift focus beyond consumer-centric services and basic connectivity-driven use cases to fully monetize their investments in 5G. He argued for a greater focus on offering advanced network solutions such as network slicing and private networks in the short term and developing end-to-end services to support a variety of enterprise use cases combined with integration capabilities in the longer term. 24% of operators view hyperscalers as formidable competitors in edge networking and cloud, while 41% see security specialists as key competitors in that arena.

GSMA Intelligence identified financial services, manufacturing, automotive, and aviation as key areas for operators to target, noting they presented opportunities of between $16 billion and $59 billion in 2023 and accounted for 37% of the $159 billion total addressable market. The research company forecast CAGRs of 10.9% for financial services, 12.1% in manufacturing, 12% automotive, and 8.4% for aviation. Hatt stated winning in the four verticals requires a fresh mindset and operational changes like collaborative approaches, with a need for operators to be more like IT consultants than connectivity sellers.