Industry giant: potential revenue now more important than risk in 5G investment decision-making

Chinese manufacturer Huawei is continuing to make the case for next generation broadband, with president of its ICT strategy and marketing, Peng Song, delivering the keynote at this year’s Mobile World Congress 5G Business Success Summit.

During his speech – which was titled ‘Diverse paths to 5G monetisation’ – Song suggested that the global user penetration rate of 5G in its first three years has been the equivalent of 4G in its first five. Giving a summary of his presentation, a spokesperson for the company said: “Operators reporting over 20 per cent 5G user penetration during the first round of deployment have seen significant growth in mobile revenue.

“In the meantime, devices, content, experience, and business models are diversifying as more operators and partners embrace [the standard]. This is evidence of a market shift from risk-based to revenue-based decision-making for even more assurance of business success.”

The spokesperson continued: “Huawei found that fast migration of 5G users and traffic is the key. If an operator migrated 30 per cent of traffic to 5G eMBB in three years, it would take less than four years to see return of investment.”