Juniper Research predicts that 2028 will be the first year in which global 5G roaming revenue surpasses revenue from 4G roaming.
The firm forecasts that 5G subscribers will spend $10.8 billion on roaming worldwide by 2028, up from an estimated $4.2 billion this year.
Although commercial 5G services launched in 2019, Juniper Research argues it will take about a decade for mobile operators to earn more annual roaming revenue from 5G connections than from 4G. Factors slowing this shift include complex 5G network architectures and a need for broader, more detailed roaming agreements, which have delayed the wider rollout of 5G roaming and limited near-term revenue growth.
A central challenge the report highlights is operators’ difficulty in accurately identifying and managing roaming connections on their networks. This shortfall contributes to what Juniper describes as “roaming revenue leakage.”
According to the research, much of this leakage stems from inaccuracies in roaming settlements and from fraudulent activity. Juniper expects these issues to be substantially reduced as operators deploy 5G standalone roaming agreements. Standalone 5G networks use advanced core architectures that support more efficient roaming technologies, including Security Edge Protection Proxy (SEPP), improving authentication, settlement accuracy, and fraud mitigation.
Georgia Allen, the report’s author, noted that despite the substantial investment required for standalone core technologies, the resulting improvement in roaming identification and revenue recovery should make the investment worthwhile.
“We therefore encourage operators to implement 5G standalone cores to maximise roaming revenue,” Allen said, “especially as competing solutions such as travel eSIMs gain popularity among mobile subscribers.”
Juniper’s analysis underscores the growing strategic importance of 5G roaming and urges operators to adopt advanced network technologies to capitalise on the expanding market.
(Image by Alex Bita)
See also: NVIDIA aims to make telecoms networks smarter
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