Top 6 trends for telcos enterprise business – September 2020 update

Summary

Enterprise services are becoming an increasingly important growth lever for telecom operators as consumer revenue growth stalls. Connectivity providers across Asia Pacific and beyond are shifting their enterprise strategies toward cloud, security, and vertical solutions to offset pricing pressure in traditional connectivity segments.

Teleworking and collaboration trends have sustained demand for IP-VPN and business communications applications even as some operators face margin compression in core connectivity. Certain operators are reporting standout enterprise revenue growth and contribution shifts, successfully scaling non-connectivity income streams such as cloud infrastructure, managed security, and system integration services, with Chinese operators moving fastest in cloud while regional players including AIS, SoftBank, Spark, and KT Corp also expand their enterprise cloud footprint.

• Strategic partnerships between telcos and public cloud providers, including Reliance Jio and Microsoft, NTT and Microsoft, and Telstra and Microsoft, spanning data centre deployment, industry-specific solutions, and network-as-a-service offerings
• Acquisition activity strengthening system integration and cybersecurity capabilities, such as HKBN's purchase of Jardine OneSolution, AIS's acquisition of Fortitude Technology, and Starhub's acquisition of Strateq
• Security-focused investments including SoftBank's stake in Cybereason and Starhub's build-out of Ensign, and which markets are seeing the fastest growth in cloud, security, and service management revenue streams

Enterprise revenue contribution, growth rates, and non-connectivity diversification vary widely across the operators covered, giving telecom strategy and enterprise sales leaders a benchmark for evaluating their own B2B growth trajectory against regional peers navigating the shift from connectivity providers toward end-to-end digital solutions partners serving cloud, security, and managed services demand.