Edge Computing Could Drive More Service Provider Revenue Than IoT or Private Networks

Some might argue that AT&T and other tier-one telcos are wasting their time on edge computing, internet of things and private networks unless each of those services can grow to generate many billions of dollars worth of revenue. 

If, for example, those three services together generated as much as $15 billion in revenue for AT&T by 2030 (perhaps an optimistic scenario), those three services collectively would represent about 10 percent of AT&T's total projected revenue, with edge computing the biggest contributor at about five percent. 

Product	Expected percentage of total AT&T revenue
Edge computing	5%
Internet of things	3%
Private networks	2%

With the caveat that a general pattern rarely applies perfectly to any particular service provider, it might be suggested that a service provider owning both fixed and mobile assets could generate revenue on about this pattern: 

Product or Service	Mobile	Fixed Network
Mobile voice	30%	20%
Messaging	10%	5%
Internet access	20%	25%
Device sales (business and consumer)	20%	10%
Fixed network consumer voice	10%	20%
Home broadband	5%	25%
Video services	5%	5%
Business services	10%	10%

Should that pattern generally hold, and to the extent we can isolate edge computing, IoT revenues and private networks from other business services, edge computing, for example, could represent as much revenue for a mobile operator as home broadband or video services.

Edge computing could rival fixed network operator revenue from video subscriptions.