Building the business case for a major 5G launch in South Asia, unlocking 250 million users and 10% 5G-driven ARPU growth in 3 years

“Analysys Mason’s experience of launching 5G in mature markets helped us develop the blueprint of our 5G launch including the potential consumer and enterprise use cases, pricing mechanism and the end-to-end business case for our board approval.”

– Chief Strategy Officer of a leading South Asian mobile operator

The challenge

A leading South Asian mobile operator wanted to understand the business case for investing in 5G

The mobile market as a whole was characterised by very high competition and low average revenue per user (ARPU). With many 5G launches around the world failing to generate value accretion for mobile operators, our client was unsure about the business case for investing in 5G. Our client needed a clear understanding of the levers for value accretion from 5G, and how this would translate into a fully fledged launch strategy.

Our approach 

We developed the blueprint for the full 5G launch, combining our detailed understanding of the local market with extensive benchmarks from mature 5G markets 

We started by analysing the potential use cases of 5G for the consumer and enterprise segments – the goal was to establish use cases that would be most relevant for the market. We then benchmarked pricing approaches taken by mobile operators globally and adapted it for our client to support forecasts of market share gain and ARPU uplift. We then explored and compared various technical considerations such as 5G non-standalone (NSA) with standalone (SA) versions, low- versus mid-band 5G spectrum, massive multiple‑input multiple‑output (mMIMO), etc. 

Our analysis became the foundation for the mobile operator’s full business case for 5G, which was presented to the Board of Directors for its feedback and sign-off. 

Figure 1: We prioritised 5G use cases most relevant for the market 

The impact

We helped the client achieve clarity and confidence in the levers of value accretion from 5G, as well as the related launch strategy

Our work helped the client to understand that 5G is a value preservation play, with some value accretion in the short to medium term coming from specific consumer and enterprise use cases. We provided our client with insight into how the market was likely to react, what revenue could be expected and what approaches would be most effective. Due to our support, our client had the confidence to push ahead with the 5G business plan. By pursuing our recommended strategy, our client was able to reach over 200 million 5G customers and over 10% ARPU uplift specifically from 5G, within 3 years of launch.