CSPs dragging their heels on enterprise 5G – report

The share of enterprise 5G deals led by communications service providers (CSPs) has slumped from an already low 21% in 2020 to 16% today.

This was the headline finding of a report from Beyond by BearingPoint, an ecosystem orchestration and digital platform provider, in collaboration with Light Reading sister company Omdia.

The good news for CSPs in the report, entitled CSPs' Readiness to Reap the Benefits of 5G – A Year On, is that the number of enterprise 5G projects as a whole has doubled over the course of the year, so the market is expanding. But CSPs are still not covering themselves in glory here when it comes getting involved.

It's all the more disconcerting from the CSPs' point of view in that most think there's decent money to be made. The 2020 study found that over 70% of CSPs reckoned most 5G revenues would be derived from B2B, B2B2C and a mixture of government and smart-city opportunities.

CSPs in the 5G slow lane

One reason why CSPs are not making deeper inroads is that alternative service providers, such as private networks specialists, are ramping up their operations and "outpacing" CSPs. Those efforts are reflected by alternative service providers increasing their share of enterprise 5G deals from 7% last year to 27% this year.

That's not to say CSPs have been sitting on their hands entirely since 2020, however. The report notes that the likes of Verizon, Orange Business Services, Telia, Rogers "and many more" have joined Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and Telefónica in announcing private 5G multi-access edge, campus LTE and 5G networks, as well as enterprise 5G offerings.

Moreover, CSPs apparently recognize that "solution-oriented production models" require mastering multiple technologies (such as cloud, edge, AI, Wi-Fi 6 and so on), along with exploring partnership options to complement 5G networks. Even so, this is not translating into meaningful market-share gains. Why? CSPs, note the report's authors, are "still too slow to react to enterprise demands."

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"CSPs are no longer trapped in their thinking and understand that enterprise 5G is an ecosystem play, which is good news," says Beyond by BearingPoint CEO Angus Ward. "However, despite developing and launching new strategies and forming partnerships, CSPs failed to move at the speed of enterprise demand."

Ward concludes that while CSPs understand the opportunity, "their determination and speed are lacking." He urges them to stop hesitating and continue to be more collaborative, even when they may not be in full control of the product or solution.

"They must start living up to the expectations that enterprises and partners have of them, experimenting with business models, accelerating testing and monetizing new offerings that are co-created with ecosystems of partners," maintained Ward.

— Ken Wieland, contributing editor, special to Light Reading