With the increasing investment in 5G, how can operators carry forward the burden?

In the eyes of the outside world, operators have always been profiteering industries, and the topic of "operators earn 370 million yuan a day" has also made a hot search in Weibo, causing public discussion. However, in the financial report of 19 in the first quarter, all operators experienced a decline in revenue, and China Mobile even experienced a decline in net profit. This makes people think. Are operators ready for 5G construction?

The profit dilemma has not been solved, and 5G investment is increasing day by day.

With the evolution of new technologies, the commercialization of 5G has led to a sharp increase in investment costs. Zhang Yunyong, member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and president of China Unicom Research Institute, said that compared with the 4G network, the high unit price and high frequency of 5G wireless base station equipment make the sites more dense and it is more difficult to add new sites. The large bandwidth of 5G requires a large transmission network, and the accumulated investment of 5G will reach 2.3 trillion yuan, about four times that of 4G. Therefore, operators have certain financial pressure on the construction and operation of 5G networks.

China Telecom's 20 18 financial report disclosed the investment budget of 5G, saying that the investment budget of 5G construction this year is 9 billion yuan. Earlier, China Unicom said at a performance conference that China Unicom's 5G investment budget this year is 6 billion to 8 billion yuan. Although China Mobile has not disclosed its 5G expenditure, it is reported that its expenditure will reach 654.38+07 billion RMB.

5G is the inevitable direction for the future development of communication technology industry. It is in the long-term interests of communication enterprises to deploy the 5G plan in advance and invest in 5G construction. However, Rome was not built in a day, and promoting the development of 5G is not a short-term behavior. It is unrealistic to expect 5G to be commercialized and profitable in a short time. Therefore, for operators, it is undoubtedly a huge challenge to ensure stable profit growth, increase 5G investment and plan long-term interests.

The number portability and speed-up and fee reduction have reduced the profit margin of operators.

At the beginning of 20 19, the government work report at the National People's Congress put forward that "the average tariff of mobile traffic will be reduced by more than 20%", and it is necessary to transfer the number to the network, further optimize and simplify the tariff package, and the package sold in 20 19 will be reduced by 15% compared with that in 20 18 years, so as to strictly investigate corporate tariff marketing violations. The three major telecom operators responded positively to this, saying that they will go all out and resolutely implement it, so that users will have a stronger sense of acquisition and higher satisfaction.

Although this statement fully demonstrates the social responsibility of central enterprises and is a solemn commitment of operators to further benefit the people and enterprises, it is not easy to realize the commitment. At this time, operators need to face the dual pressures of market and policy, and how to balance profits and profits is a big challenge for operators.

How do operators move forward with heavy burdens?

First, continue to deepen content transformation and innovate future priorities. Operators may learn from the experience of foreign operators. In addition to actively entering the content business through acquisition and investment, they can also promote the "end-management-cloud" service through the extension of the industrial chain to create a platform ecology. For example, in recent years, China Telecom aimed at the home market and vigorously developed and promoted IPTV services, making Tianyi HD another service with over 100 million users.

The second is the superposition of rights and interests and good service. If operators want to retain users, the first thing they need to improve is the quality of service. It is wise to treat users with less routines and more care.

As for attracting users to upgrade their value, we need to add more sweetness on the basis of service quality, overlapping rights or better grasp. Merchants can continue to promote network cards for the benefit of non-streaming media or entertainment members (videos, music, games, etc.). ), and further develop directional convergence for users with high ARPU value, and overlay home cards/daughter cards, broadband, IPTV, etc.

The third is to develop emerging businesses. Faced with the strong market demand of the government and enterprises, operators can take advantage of the trend, regard emerging markets as key markets for future development, continuously increase resource allocation, strengthen channel operation capabilities, and actively transform into intelligent emerging services.

(This article is the author's personal research opinion and does not represent the position of this newspaper. The writer is an analyst in Celine Communication Research Department)