Now that connectivity is taken for granted, what is the value of mobile communication? - The future value that telecommunications carriers are exploring beyond 'Giga'

"Did 5G actually make money?"
When you are in the telecommunications industry, this topic sometimes comes up.
When 5G first started, various use cases were discussed, such as autonomous driving, telemedicine, XR, and the metaverse. I think there was a sense of expectation at telecommunications industry events and lectures that "5G would change society."

A few years have passed since then.
Of course, 5G has become widespread, and the daily experience using smartphones has improved. But if asked, "What is the huge market that was created specifically because of 5G?", many people might struggle to answer. In fact, telecommunications carriers around the world are facing the same challenge. While traffic continues to increase, communication charges are falling. Even though capital investment is increasing, revenue is not growing as expected. As telecommunications carriers in various countries struggle with this, a certain change is occurring.

That change is that many telecommunications carriers are gradually shifting from the idea of "selling data volume" to the idea of "selling communication quality." Network slicing, Network APIs, and QoS. At first glance, these may seem like separate services and technologies, but they can actually be thought of as all pointing in the same direction.
This time, I would like to think about the new value proposition in the 5G era from that perspective.

Self-introduction

Name: Daisuke Tsujino
Job: Evangelist (5G), NTT DOCOMO Business
Hobbies: Road biking, trail running through hills and mountains
NTT DOCOMO Evangelist Introduction Page

"Connecting anywhere" is now normal

The business model of telecommunications carriers until now has been very simple.
Cover a wider area. Achieve faster communication. Have more users use it. And earn revenue based on data usage. This model has been successful for many years. However, looking at the current mobile market, the situation has changed a little.

Smartphones have become a life infrastructure, and for many users, "being able to use it normally" has become a matter of course.
From the user's perspective,
"Being especially fast because of this carrier" is less important than
"Being able to use it normally anywhere."

This is good for users, but it means that differentiation has become difficult for telecommunications carriers. Amidst this, what has begun to attract attention is
the idea of "providing different quality according to the purpose"
rather than "providing the same network to everyone."

The communication quality and characteristics required for business communication and communication used by general users are naturally different. Moreover, even if you say "business use," the requirements vary depending on the purpose.

For example, the communication quality required for live streaming and factory control is completely different.
For live streaming, UL bandwidth* is important, and for factory control, low latency is important. For disaster prevention purposes, stability and availability would be required above all else.
*UL (Uplink) bandwidth: The bandwidth of the communication line when transmitting (uploading) from a terminal such as a smartphone to a server, etc.

What if telecommunications carriers could provide such quality according to the purpose? That could become a new service value, not just "line sales."
Looking at the trends of global vendors in recent years, it seems that the idea of NaaS (Network as a Service) is being recognized as one direction.
Just as the cloud turned servers into a service, there is a possibility that networks will also become a service. For that purpose, it is expected that technologies such as network slicing will be utilized. This direction is being drawn as one of the future visions.

Telecommunications carriers around the world are starting "quality sales"

These are the actual movements of telecommunications carriers toward such a future vision.
Particularly interesting is the initiative of an Asian telecommunications carrier. The company did not suddenly start selling a nationwide slicing service.
First, they sold an "Event 5G Express Pass" for events where communication congestion is likely to occur, such as the F1 Singapore Grand Prix and large concerts. It is a service that allows users to use priority communication quality only on the day of the event.
It is a service aimed at people who think it is worth paying money to be able to comfortably post videos and send SNS messages at a live venue where people are crowded.
After that, it expanded from event-limited to "5G+ Priority Pass" option sales, and further developed into higher-tier rate plans called "5G+ Priority" and "5G+ Enhanced" in 2025.
Looking at this flow, it is presumed that what they are trying to sell is not slicing technology, but the "comfortable communication experience" itself.

Similar movements can be seen among North American telecommunications carriers. A major telecommunications carrier is offering improved video call quality as the value of its higher-tier plans.
Users are not buying slicing. They are buying the experience that "important video calls will be less likely to be interrupted."
Also in Europe, several major telecommunications carriers have begun to utilize slicing and priority control as differentiation elements for higher-tier plans.

In this way, in the 5G era where connecting is taken for granted, telecommunications carriers around the world are beginning to take trial-and-error steps to see if the new initiative of paying for communication quality will be accepted by the market and users.

Trial and error of "quality sales" has also begun in Japan

This flow is also beginning to be seen little by little in Japan.
As a typical example, there is a priority control service provided by a domestic telecommunications carrier. This is attached to the target rate plan, and it is a mechanism that allows users to use more comfortable communication even during congestion.
What should be noted here is that it is promoting communication quality, not data capacity, as the plan value. Until a little while ago, the competition axis of rate plans was "how much data capacity can be used." However, with this service, "how comfortably it can be used" has become a differentiation element.
Furthermore, another domestic telecommunications carrier has similarly incorporated a priority control mechanism into its target rate plans, providing improved communication experience as value.

On the other hand, NTT DOCOMO (NTT DOCOMO Business) is taking a slightly different approach.
It provides a service called "5G Wide" as a priority control service, but this is not in the form of attaching it to a target rate plan, but is sold as a single service itself. Also, the "5G Slicing" newly released at the end of the last fiscal year is not just priority control, but provides a slicing-only service that is close to the idea of designing network quality for each company and each purpose.

In this way, although it seems that each MNO in Japan is doing different things, it can be thought that they are actually heading in the same direction. It is a trial and error to shift from "selling communication volume" to "selling communication quality."

What lies beyond slicing

And personally, I don't think slicing itself is the goal.
What will really demonstrate value might be what lies beyond that. For example, what if applications could request network quality via API in the future?
A live streaming app secures high-quality communication for the 2 hours during a match.
An AI agent automatically reserves a low-latency network for video analysis.
If such a world is realized, the network will no longer be just a communication infrastructure, but can become a "service" that is used as much as necessary when necessary. I feel that the initiatives of GSMA Open Gateway and Network API are aiming exactly in that direction.

In recent 6G discussions, terms such as "AI Native Network" and "Network as a Platform" often appear. When people say 6G, attention tends to be focused only on speed, but that may not be the essence.
Turning the network itself into a service and changing it into a social infrastructure that applications and AI can use freely. It can be thought that 6G is on the extension of that line.
What is the killer app created by 5G? What is the huge market? There is no answer yet. However, I feel that a quiet change is occurring in the movements of telecommunications carriers around the world toward the creation of new value propositions.