5G “ is going to pay off big time in the next five to 10 years,” says Hans Vestberg, Verizon CEO, as business services ranging from mobile edge computing to private networks; internet of things and fixed wireless access produce incremental new revenues.
That is the mobile parallel to ramped-up investments in fiber-to-home facilities planned by telcos and cable operators. The value is not so much incremental new revenues but the ability to remain competitive in the access markets.
Nobody really expects consumer internet access revenue to grow at anything but low single-digit rates. Internet service providers face higher usage and flat revenues that require continual capacity upgrades with marginal ability to raise rates.
Like it or not, mobile or fixed data demand will keep increasing faster than the ability of ISPs to raise prices. For mobile operators, that means 5G is required simply to keep pace with end user data demand, as fixed network operators will have to keep boosting capacity as well.
Investors and industry executives alike would prefer to point to higher revenues that scale more linearly with new infrastructure. That simply is not the way the business works. The internet access business is a case of “more capex with minor revenue lift.”
But “you get to keep your business.”
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