Study Shows U.S. Mobile Operators Bank on Enterprises for 5G, but Lack Infrastructure to Cash in

U.S. 5g Operator Survey Reveals Multi-Party Coordination, Revenue-Sharing and Security Challenges Are Backed with Hope in Blockchain to Manage Commerce

New survey insights released by Syniverse show that 5G is driving the majority (60%) of U.S. mobile service providers to shift their business focus from consumers to enterprise marketplaces with blockchain as a solution to manage the challenges with multi-party coordination of payments.

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These U.S.-based findings are extracted from a global operator study and analysis that research firm Heavy Reading conducted on behalf of Syniverse in early 2019 to provide insights of 5G business drivers and challenges across the globe. The U.S. breakdown of the findings provide a regional look at how mobile service providers are approaching 5G.

The research shows that while 70% of U.S. mobile service providers expect to lead advanced 5G services in a new enterprise-focused, Internet of Things world, they also recognize that they are not yet prepared to solve the payment, partnership and interoperability challenges.

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This is evidenced by 90% of respondents raising concerns over the practical challenges of managing the extra complexity around coordination, invoicing and payments.

• 73% of U.S. respondents describe coordinating multiple partners as the most difficult of the revenue challenges associated with 5G. Next is maintaining service quality (70%), followed by implementing revenue-sharing mechanisms across partners and regulation – each at 67%.
• 87% of all U.S. respondents point to the security and durability of 5G ecosystem transactions between partners as the most important features.
• Surprisingly, only 13% of U.S. respondents say that their current systems are capable of supporting multi-party b******, reconciliation and payments needed for 5G.

To help offset these 5G challenges, 90% of U.S. operators plan to launch initial commercial implementations of blockchain for b******, settlement and contract management by 2024. Syniverse joined forces with IBM in response to this need to develop a blockchain-based Universal Commerce service that helps with managing partners, revenue sharing and security by replacing manual processes with smart contracts, unifying data records and using security encryption. It reduces the friction of doing business in a revenue-sharing world of multi-parties, services and technologies – regardless of industry or connectivity type.

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The study shows that the number of partnerships, opportunities and challenges required to accomplish 5G are not being left to a single industry to carry out. Instead, 5G is pivoting the marketplace toward a collaboration of partnerships across a variety of enterprise players, service providers and technologies in inter-connected environments. Operators’ implementations of blockchain in the coming years will open a universal way of conducting commerce.

• Utpal Mangla, Vice President & Partner for Blockchain, IBM Telecommunications Services

“An essential part of the 5G ecosystem approach is simplifying what will become a complex network of transactions across multiple platforms to ensure each contributor gets their fair share of the revenue generated by services while delivering an enhanced customer experience. Accurate, secure settlement and monetization systems provided with blockchain will facilitate the ability to securely clear and monetize transactions, helping operators drive more revenue and innovation.”

• Dennis Meurs, Vice President and General Manager, Syniverse

“Clearly enterprises are driving the first wave of adoption of 5G as it opens up so many opportunities for them to improve their businesses. But one size doesn’t fit all, and value will be gained from industry-specific implementations of 5G. These ecosystems, along with network interoperability and security issues, are key challenges telecom operators must address in order to see real adoption and monetization.”

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