The Tool Desk
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Why 5G belongs on the digital transformation agenda
In the 2018 DataFLOQ interview, Hedfors argued that operators should plan 5G and digitalization as one transformation, rather than as separate technology projects. The point is practical: a faster or more capable network creates business value only when the operator can turn its capabilities into useful customer experiences, services, and operating models.
That agenda reaches beyond consumer mobile broadband. An operator may continue to sell connectivity, while also enabling enterprise services with cloud or edge capabilities, IoT platforms, integration, and partners. Those are different strategic roles, with different requirements for the network, customer experience, operations, and business support systems. The interview describes a direction for operators to consider, not proof that every operator should pursue the same role.
What executives need to align
Choose the role the business wants to play
Ericsson’s 2020 technical review of business support systems (BSS) describes an evolution from a “network developer” focused on connectivity, to a “service enabler” supporting capabilities such as cloud, edge, and IoT platforms, and onward to a “service creator” collaborating beyond telecoms. These are roles in Ericsson’s framework, not a maturity ranking every operator must follow. The review emphasizes that BSS needs depend on the role an operator chooses.
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Executives can use the distinction to test strategic coherence: do target customers need connectivity alone, a service assembled from operator capabilities, or a broader solution delivered with industry partners? The answer affects what the operator must build, buy, integrate, and support.
Identify industry opportunities and partners
Hedfors’s interview recommends identifying opportunities in vertical markets, forming ecosystems, refining go-to-market and business models, and positioning existing operator capabilities for industry needs. The source discusses sectors including manufacturing, energy and utilities, automotive, public safety, media and entertainment, healthcare, financial services, public transport, agriculture, and retail. That range signals the breadth of possible applications; it does not establish that every use case is ready for commercial deployment.
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Ericsson’s 2018 guide, produced with Arthur D. Little, estimated a USD 204–619 billion operator revenue opportunity by 2026 from industry digitalization. This was an estimate of addressable potential, not realized revenue or a forecast that operators would capture those sales. It should be read as a historical opportunity estimate, not a current market outlook.
Make customer experience part of the operating design
The interview calls attention to customer effort and friction across B2C, B2B, and B2B2C interactions. Executives should consider the full service journey: how a customer discovers and orders an offer, gets it provisioned, obtains support, and understands charges. Digital touchpoints and better mobile broadband performance, reliability, and speed are part of that experience, but improvements in one channel do not by themselves resolve friction elsewhere.
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The interview also reports that more than 70 percent of consumers identified performance as a leading expectation from 5G, attributing the number to Ericsson ConsumerLab. The interview page does not supply the underlying report title, sample, geography, or field dates, so the figure should not be treated as a broadly verified or current measure.
Modernize the network and its operations
The 2018 interview recommends simplifying and making the network more programmable, while planning the evolution toward 5G Core. In executive terms, that means connecting network architecture decisions to the services and operating model the company intends to support. It is not a claim that one architecture or deployment sequence fits all operators; the interview does not provide a current implementation blueprint.
Automation is also part of the stated agenda: operating processes need to evolve alongside the network so that new services can be delivered and managed without simply reproducing older manual workflows. The source presents automation and network evolution as strategic considerations, not as quantified performance guarantees.
Why BSS matters when connectivity becomes a service business
BSS supports the commercial machinery around services: agreements, orders, reporting, invoices, and relationships among consumers, enterprise customers, suppliers, partners, platform providers, and integrators. In Ericsson’s 2020 account, enterprise 5G and IoT offers can bring more stakeholders and more complex monetization needs than a simple connectivity relationship.
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11That can require support for IoT and edge monetization, charging across multiple parties, and partner business models. An operator considering such offers should assess whether its business support capabilities can represent the relevant products, parties, usage, and commercial arrangements. The technical review is Ericsson’s vendor-authored perspective; it does not establish that buying a specific platform guarantees commercial success.
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- Set shared business outcomes. Define the outcomes that digitalization and 5G investment are meant to support, rather than managing them as disconnected technology programs.
- Select target customer and industry needs. Identify which consumer or enterprise problems the operator intends to solve, and distinguish plausible opportunities from services that are not yet commercially established.
- Decide the operator’s role. Choose whether the company will primarily provide connectivity, enable services with platforms and capabilities, or create broader offers with partners.
- Map required capabilities. Tie each chosen offer to its network, programmable and automated operations, digital customer interactions, BSS, and partner requirements.
- Design commercial and delivery models. Clarify who sells, provisions, supports, and bills for each service, including how multiple parties share responsibilities and charges.
- Review progress against the intended outcomes. Check whether customers can discover, order, use, and resolve issues with the service, and whether the operating model can support it. The cited sources do not prescribe a universal set of targets or milestones.
What this agenda does—and does not—establish
The 2018 interview offers a useful executive lens: treat 5G as part of a wider shift in services and business models, while addressing customer experience, network capabilities, operations, charging, and partnerships together. Ericsson’s 2020 BSS review adds technical context for the commercial systems that may be needed as operators take on more complex service and partner roles.
Neither source establishes current rollout status, present-day market forecasts, a universal implementation plan, or proof that a particular industry use case will succeed. Their value is in framing the decisions executives need to make, not in replacing current business cases, technical assessments, or customer evidence.
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