Strategies for generating revenue from networks must adapt to an evolving environment
New Lease on 5G Monetisation: Amdocs Guiding Service Providers
Sarit Assaf, General Manager of Amdocs Technology, delves into the state of 5G monetisation in an engaging chat with VanillaPlus. With her extensive 28-year tenure at the company, Sarit's deep industry insight places her at the forefront of helping telecom service providers (CSPs) tackle 5G monetisation challenges and identify valuable technologies to boost their future growth.
VanillaPlus: Amidst the rapid progress towards 5G, where do we stand on 5G monetisation, and how is Amdocs aiding service providers?
Sarit Assaf: While impressive advancements have been made in 5G standalone (SA) over the past year, challenges in 5G monetisation still persist. Network slicing and edge technologies haven't quite met expectations, but the exposure of network APIs shows promise for unlocking value. As a result, CSPs balance the need to maximize their existing 3G and 4G assets while smoothly transitioning to 5G SA.
Many CSPs employ an iterative approach instead of taking a "big bang" strategy, aligning the introduction of 5G infrastructure with novel services that generate new revenue streams. This strategy ensures they maintain flexibility for the future and can adapt their monetisation strategies to capture swiftly changing opportunities as they arise.
With limited consumer Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) growth, CSPs are increasingly focusing on the enterprise market, and B2B2X models and API exposure are becoming focal points. In this evolving landscape of creating new value from networks, AI-driven digital engagement and network operations are expected to reduce costs and open up new business opportunities.
VP: Given the diversity among CSPs, how is Amdocs addressing their distinct monetisation stages?
SA: Amdocs works with CSPs worldwide, from giants like AT&T, Bell, and T-Mobile to smaller operators. Our extensive experience allows us to understand each CSP's unique requirements and offer tailored solutions. We believe in agile monetisation and have a charging engine that addresses industry challenges, delivering high flexibility and adaptability for diverse monetisation scenarios.
Scalability is also a priority, as systems should support CSPs with millions or even billions of subscribers while simultaneously providing cost-effective packages for emerging lines of business. CSPs aim for faster integration and business agility, avoiding the past monetisation mistakes.
Amdocs Charging can effortlessly integrate with existing monetisation ecosystems, delivering the adaptability needed to address market shifts and cater to growing business lines. We view charging as a critical lens through which value is captured from early service deployments, enhancing operational efficiency and enabling the prediction and automation of new monetisation opportunities.
VP: AI and GenAI play a significant role – are we at risk of over-hyping these technologies?
SA: While there's hype surrounding GenAI, tangible benefits have already been identified and are driving volume. Experienced users have observed quantifiable, time-saving efficiencies. GenAI promises to unlock new trends or accelerating existing ones, like augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR). Amdocs is at the forefront of industry developments with our telecoms-specific amAIz GenAI platform, collaborating with giants like Nvidia, AWS, Azure, and Google.
We remain cautious of hype cycles and are focused on balancing organizational changes, testing AI wherever possible. We see AI-enhancement of the catalog as part of a revolution that will continue.
VP: When it comes to new monetisation and charging systems, what essential considerations should CSPs focus on to drive future services?
SA: There are several factors to keep in mind, but perhaps the most crucial is the close integration of charging with 5G, edge, and API possibilities. We believe the ability to support converged mobile, fixed, pre- and post-paid, and consumer and business lines is also critical. In a recent scenario, we handled the migration of more than 170 million subscribers onto a new charging platform with no downtime, using open APIs.
Being cost-effective is essential, with rapid, out-of-the-box, small-scale charging solutions for new lines of business or MVNOs. Our solutions provide low code/no code configuration for experimenting with new services and pricing models, enabling cloud-native approaches for agility and innovation. We support all public, hybrid, and multi-cloud options.
Openness and collaboration are vital for the adoption of standards and open APIs to enhance collaboration. This extends beyond CAMARA APIs to other ecosystems, such as TMF. Our focus on AI and GenAI processes will have transformative impacts on CSPs and their customers.
VP: What is the key to monetisation success from Amdocs' perspective?
SA: Effective prioritization and tailored monetisation strategies are our secrets to success. With deep industry knowledge and expertise, we navigate the evolving monetisation landscape for CSPs from various backgrounds. Our coverage of essential domains such as digital engagement, partner management, catalogue, care, monetisation, billing, network automation, and orchestration forms the basis for customer-centric, agile, and business-driven solutions.
These capabilities are strategic drivers for 5G monetisation, providing the necessary tools for CSPs to succeed now and in the future. Our aim is to remove headaches for CSPs and expand opportunities for our customers, helping them thrive in the face of the chargings and monetisation challenges of the telecoms industry.
Learn more about Amdocs' innovative monetisation and charging systems at: www.amdocs.com
SPONSORED INTERVIEW
Enrichment Data:
- Strategic Advantage Through Advanced Charging: Modern monetisation engines should leverage charging as a strategic differentiator, particularly in the era of GenAI and 5G [Source: Amdocs DTW Ignite 2025 event and resources]
- Flexibility and Agility: Solutions should support flexible quoting, commerce, and configuration for diverse customer segments, notably for mid-market B2B customers, using autonomous agents and cloud-native, API-integrated architectures [Source: Amdocs DTW Ignite 2025 event and resources]
- Automation and Efficiency: AI-powered orchestration can automate product and network alignment, reducing product launch times from weeks to days. This requires robust API mapping, service orchestration, and adoption of GitOps for operational control [Source: Amdocs DTW Ignite 2025 event and resources]
- Proactive Quality Assurance and Anomaly Detection: AI-driven real-time billing and predictive intelligence are essential for minimizing revenue leakage, customer complaints, and manual rework [Source: Amdocs DTW Ignite 2025 event and resources]
- Data Federation and Digital Twin Integration: Bridging data silos across multi-vendor networks through GenAI-enabled inventory federation and digital twin technology is necessary for a unified, accurate network view, enhancing automation and customer experience [Source: Amdocs DTW Ignite 2025 event and resources]
- Advanced Customer Engagement: Beyond chatbots, advanced AI solutions can drive innovation in customer engagement, churn prevention, and upselling [Source: Amdocs DTW Ignite 2025 event and resources]
These factors are central to Amdocs' vision for CSPs to adopt intelligent, automated, and customer-centric monetisation and charging systems. While Sarit Assaf's specific commentary is not provided, these points represent Amdocs' strategic stance on next-generation monetisation and charging systems.
Business: In the evolving telecom landscape, Amdocs is offering tailored solutions to help service providers (CSPs) efficiently navigate the challenges of 5G monetization, providing agile monetization strategies, AI-driven digital engagement, and network operations.
Technology: To boost future growth, many CSPs are employing an iterative approach that aligns the introduction of 5G infrastructure with novel services, leveraging technologies like Open APIs, AI, and GenAI, and adopting autonomous agents and cloud-native, API-integrated architectures.
Finance: As CSPs balance the need to maximize their existing assets while transitioning to 5G SA, they are increasingly focusing on the enterprise market and employing B2B2X models, AI-powered orchestration to reduce product launch times, and predictive analytics for minimizing revenue leakage, customer complaints, and manual rework.
