Since the commercialization of 5G, operators have successfully found new growth engines with the natural characteristics of 5G networks such as high speed, low latency and wide connectivity. Emerging businesses represented by cloud computing , Internet of Things, big data, etc. have gradually become the key to whether the three major operators can successfully realize the digital transformation of to .
Currently, amid sluggish growth on the consumer side, thanks to the large-scale development of emerging businesses, telecom business revenue will grow at a year-on-year growth rate of 8% in 2022, reaching a scale of 1.58 trillion yuan.
Among them, emerging businesses such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things "debuted in the C position", driving telecommunications business revenue to grow by 5.1 percentage points with a year-on-year growth of 32.4%. Compared with the 0.2 percentage point contribution from mobile data traffic business revenue from January to November, emerging business has demonstrated its extraordinary strength at this stage.
Starting from missing out on the bonus of the mobile Internet era and becoming a network plumber, operators have been constantly exploring new growth points in recent years to break the income pattern that relies solely on traditional businesses. Focusing on digital and intelligent scenario applications in industrial manufacturing, transportation, traditional energy and other fields, they have opened up high-value government and enterprise markets to boost revenue growth.
seems to have seen the huge value of operator transformation. Recently, the three major operators have experienced gains. Telecom has increased by more than 7%, China Unicom has increased by more than 6%, stock price has reached a new high in more than a year, and China Mobile has increased by nearly 4%.
Some industry scholars said, "In the 3G and 4G era, operators played the role of information infrastructure builders, and in the 5G and digital economy era, cloud and network will become the new information infrastructure, putting forward new requirements for operators' computing power network. High demand, technological innovation has become the keyword for their next development. "
At the same time, the three major operators have also successively stated that they will further increase investment in scientific research on the basis of cost reduction and efficiency improvement. By the end of 2025, China Mobile will build a systematic strength for original technology research and increase the proportion of basic research investment and total R&D funding to 20%.
In the first three quarters of 2022, China Unicom’s R&D expenses increased by 92% year-on-year, and Telecom increased by 101.4%. It means that operators want to take the technology into their own hands.
However, when it comes to the implementation of projects, operators now play more of a "contractor" role, handing over system development and platform construction to third parties. This has resulted in operators having a weak technical foundation and weak core capabilities, but they can still reap good results on their books. However, operators are also aware of this problem. In the 5G era with cloud and network infrastructure, they are paying more attention to technology research and development and technological innovation.
In the past year, whether it was the outstanding performance of Mobile Cloud , Tianyi Cloud, and China Unicom Cloud, or the 5G scenario applications such as smart cities and 5G fully connected factories jointly created by operators and partners, the market has seen the digital intelligence value of operators in the 5G era.
Take Tianyi Cloud as an example. With market share of 17.7%, has ranked first in China's exclusive cloud service market twice in a row. As the fastest growing field in the overall cloud computing market, Tianyi Cloud has been deployed in many fields such as energy, medical care, transportation, etc. due to the growing "cloud migration demand" of government and enterprises.
CTyunOS cloud infrastructure independently developed based on Euler has been deployed in total more than 50,000 sets, achieving full cloud network coverage for various business scenarios such as public cloud and IT cloud migration. Coupled with the service operation and maintenance system extending from the provincial and municipal levels to the county and town levels, the operator's cloud has gradually gained market recognition.
In the large-scale emerging government and enterprise market, operators are also committed to exploring user value on the C side. The 5G package users developed by the three major operators exceeded 1 billion as early as the end of September last year, and the 5G messaging and 5G new calls launched by the operators are not yet qualified for large-scale commercial use. As a strong "candidate" for 5G's phenomenal applications, perhaps one day in the future, 5G new calls will become one of the ways we communicate with each other.
Whether it is the ongoing emerging government and enterprise market, or the 5G consumer market that has not caused any "splash" yet, the value of operators is also being revalued. Whether they can seize the opportunity, successfully realize the transformation of to digital intelligence and , and return to their peak is worth looking forward to.
