Kaan Terzioglu, Veon Co-CEO on New Mobile Business Models

So long as the proven model of revenue growth driven by subscriptions (voice and access, then messaging, then mobile data) made sense, few mobile service providers had huge incentives to radically revamp revenue sources driven by mobile payments, banking, identity management or other applications. 

That time arguably is coming in both developed and emerging markets, as the core mobile data revenue driver reaches saturation. What is big enough to replace mobile data growth is the issue. In developing markets, mobile banking has shown traction. That is unlikely to be the case in developed markets, where something else--internet of things, edge computing, private networks or something else we haven't noticed yet--are more likely candidates.

I suspect very few professionals actually foresaw--in the mid 1990s--that long distance would fail as the industry profit generator, to be replaced by mobility. We are likely to be surprised at what replaces mobile data and subscriptions as the industry revenue driver.