CSP Share Of Enterprise 5G Deals Down

While the number of enterprise 5G projects doubled over the course of the year, and despite telcos recognizing the need for a multi-technology, omni-partner, solution-oriented approach for enterprise 5G, competition from alternative service providers has significantly impacted CSPs’ share of the 5G enterprise market. The Bearingpoint study found that CSPs are starting to realize the importance of the enterprise 5G market but must fully commit and put the dedicated resources in place faster if they are to capture the opportunities as they emerge.

In 2020, the first report, Industries and Enterprises are ready to reap the benefits of 5G, found that 72.3 percent of CSPs already believed that most 5G revenues would be derived from B2B, B2B2C, or government/smart city opportunities. However, it also found that CSPs were being cut out of enterprise 5G engagement and the solution building by enterprises and other players in the market. Only 21 percent of enterprise 5G deals were led by CSPs and in 40 percent of the deals, CSPs were the secondary supplier. 32 percent were led by enterprises and 7 percent by alternative service providers.   

One year on, CSP thinking has evolved. The study reveals that CSPs now realize that solution-oriented production models also require mastering multiple technologies (such as cloud, edge, AI, Wi-Fi 6, and so on) and partnership options to complement 5G networks. According to this year’s report, more CSPs understood the opportunity and started to provide private networks and 5G solutions to the enterprise. However, they are still too slow to respond to enterprise demands.

In fact, the research shows that in the past 12 months, the number of enterprise 5G projects doubled while the share of CSPs deals dropped to 16 percent. By contrast, alternative service providers, such as private network specialists, ramped up their efforts and operations and outpaced CSPs. Alternative service providers increased their share of enterprise 5G deals from 7 percent last year to 27 percent this year.