Business revenue accounted for more than a quarter of operators’ total revenue in 2023 (based on results from around 60 operators detailed in our Business revenue tracker). However, average growth rates fell compared with 2022, mainly due to the difficult economic conditions facing many businesses. IT services such as cloud and security are among the main revenue growth drivers, and our Business-services-related M&A tracker indicates that operators continue to invest in these services despite a sharp fall in the total number of acquisitions in 2023.

In this podcast, Catherine Hammond, Research Director, and Matt Small, Analyst, discuss what is (and isn’t) driving operator business revenue growth and consider the prospects for the rest of 2024.

Starlink is increasingly successful in the broadband market with over 2.6 million subscribers worldwide. Can this translate into success in the skies and will Starlink succeed in the in-flight connectivity (IFC) market? The Starlink Qatar Airways deal is one example of its progress, but in this podcast, space and satellite experts Christopher Baugh and Kerry Vincent-Viry, take a step back to outline Starlink’s IFC journey so far and what the future looks like.

In this podcast, space experts, Christopher Baugh and Prachi Kawade discuss the changes in the Earth observation market, where data has historically been the main revenue driver. They explore the changes that satellite operators, such as Planet Insights, have made in terms of venturing downstream and enhancing their core offerings. Customers are increasingly relying on analytics for decision-making, which is fuelling growth in the value-added services, intellectual property and big data segments. Chris and Prachi forecast that the demand for data and downstream services from commercial and government and military sectors will surge in the next decade.

Welcome to our AI podcast series. Each episode features business leaders from across the telecoms, media and technology (TMT) industry who discuss their AI-related insights, and what AI means to them, their organisation and the industry as a whole. 
 
In this episode, Analysys Mason's Paul Jevons, Director and expert in tech-enabled transformation, talks to Dominic Gallello, Managing Director and Head of Digital and AI at Bridgepoint.
 
Bridgepoint is one of the world's leading private asset growth investors, specialising in private equity and private debt. It has over EUR41 billion of assets under management and a strong local presence in China, Europe and the USA.

Paul and Dominic discuss:

• conducting due diligence projects in the AI era
• the risks and opportunities that GenAI creates for the investor community
• managing investment portfolios in the AI era
• what does an AI-enabled future may hold for businesses and the investor community.

Find out more about Analysys Mason's AI-related research and consulting services here.

In this podcast Martin Scott, expert in video, gaming and entertainment, and Oliver Bruff, expert in fixed broadband services, discuss the impact that the development of metaverse-type applications, such as cloud-rendered XR, will have on fixed network traffic and how these applications will create a need for operators to proactively manage in-home networks with AIOps.

Read the associated article.

Selling ICT services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will be the main source of incremental revenue for operators, while their connectivity revenue will be effectively flat. However, operators will only earn a small share of revenue from the largest and fastest-growing of these services – public cloud solutions. Operators will hold a much larger, and growing, share of the SME cyber-security market.

In this podcast, Matt Small and Catherine Hammond, experts in SME services, discuss why operators are in a good position to sell cyber-security solutions to SMEs and what the challenges are when doing this. Matt and Catherine also offer some recommendations for operators that have established enterprise security brands and for those that are mostly new to offering security.

Read the associated article and reports: Approaches to cyber security for SMEs: ten operator case studies and Operator business services for SMEs: worldwide forecast.

In this episode, Analysys Mason's Paul Jevons, Director and expert in tech-enabled transformation, and Scott Petty, Chief Technology Officer at Vodafone Group, discuss how AI is affecting Vodafone and its customers.  

Topics covered in this podcast  

• How GenAI can enhance productivity, drive business transformation, and foster innovation in product and service development
• The opportunities and challenges that AI brings 
• AI governance and ethics 
• The benefits of AI for Vodafone’s customers 
• The role and importance of partnerships with large language model (LLM) solution providers

Find out more about Analysys Mason's AI-related research and consulting services here.

Read the associated articles: The adoption of AI will be ineffective without the right operating models, Scenarios for GenAI and telecoms in 2033 and AI series: who will be the GenAI winners and losers in the TMT industry?

Welcome to our AI podcast series. Each episode features business leaders from across the telecoms, media and technology (TMT) industry who discuss their AI-related insights, and what AI means to them, their organisation and the industry as a whole.

In this episode, Analysys Mason's Stela Bokun, partner and expert in strategy and Paul Jevons, director and expert in tech-enabled transformation talk with Aileen Hannah, SMB Voice of the Customer Director at Microsoft. They discuss:

• the relevance for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) of the recent advances in AI and how these advances are shaping the SMB market
• examples of where SMBs have adopted AI and are seeing significant benefits
• why AI might help SMBs to compete with larger companies
• how adoption of AI in SMBs is being driven by employees rather than the business
• the challenges or barriers to AI adoption that SMBs face
• how Microsoft and its technology partners help SMBs with AI adoption
• Aileen’s one key message to the industry on the importance of AI for SMBs.

Find out more about Analysys Mason's AI-related research and consulting services here.

Welcome to our AI podcast series. Each episode features business leaders from across the telecoms, media and technology (TMT) industry who discuss their AI-related insights, and what AI means to them, their organisation and the industry as a whole.

In this episode, Analysys Mason's Paul Jevons, Director and expert in tech-enabled transformation, and Tom Rebbeck, Research Partner and expert in TMT consumer and business services, discuss:

• why it is important to think about who the winners and losers will be

• the potential impact of GenAI and the three scenarios that could play out in the TMT industry over the coming years

• • the Navigator scenario: what it looks like and who could benefit

• • the Pilot scenario: a more radical situation, and who is best positioned to take advantage

• • the Explorer scenario: bundling connectivity with other services, and how this could shape the industry

• how telecoms operators and other players in the TMT industry can use the scenarios to help with their GenAI strategies.

Find out more about Analysys Mason's AI-related research and consulting services here.

Read the associated article here.

In this podcast, Martin Scott, expert in video, gaming and entertainment, and Oliver Bruff, expert in fixed broadband services, discuss the impact that Matter will have on the consumer smart home market and the opportunities that it provides for fixed broadband operators.

Read the associated article here.

Satellite direct-to-device technology could solve the challenge of connectivity in remote areas. It is attracting interest from mobile network operators (MNOs), satellite operators and investors. However, is the technology ready to meet customers’ expectations? What is the revenue opportunity today and how will it evolve over time? Join the discussion with satellite and space experts, Lluc Palerm and Christopher Baugh.

Learn more about our satellite strategies for telcos research programme and our report on the satellite direct-to-device market.