Ep 45 – Drumming up ways to increase ARPU with McKinsey

Telco leaders have been scratching their heads about how to monetize their 5G network. One of the world’s top think tanks, McKinsey & Company, has opinions on this topic—and research to back them up.

For this episode, I’m joined by McKinsey Partner Ferry Grijpink, founder of the McKinsey Center for Advanced Connectivity. He’s got great insights into how data analytics can help telcos personalize the subscriber experience and boost ARPU. Listen now to hear our conversation about:

What McKinsey’s research reveals about monetizing 5G investments [03:19];
Why telcos need to un-commoditize their products [04:24];
How delivering more personalized offers can boost ARPU [08:15]; and
Why the public cloud, AI, and ML are critical to achieving ARPU growth [16:15].

Listen to our conversation by clicking play above or subscribe through your favorite podcast platform – see the links in the right column above. You can find the transcript for this episode here.

Links and Resources

Check out these resources from McKinsey & Company:
Find out how the Economic Times looks at personalization in this article: Which way 5G wind blows; significant shift in how telco operators engage with customers
Read this piece from Light Reading’s Mike Dano, Could 6G mark a return to usage-based pricing?
Telcos are starting to play with personalization. Read this article on Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom’s early experiments on combining their data with personalizing the experience
I owe Ferry dinner BIG TIME, and he can name the place and time whenever he wants to! That’s because I disrupted his talk at MWC22 with my talk, The Public Cloud is NOW (oh, the irony!). Check out those drums at the beginning!
If I took Ferry to dinner in Austin, we’d head to my favorite restaurant, Uchi. I know – sushi? In Texas? But it brings in fish daily from Toyosu, Japan, and it might be the best sushi restaurant in the United States. It’s better than Nobu!

THIS WEEK’S GUEST

Ferry Grijpink
Ferry leads the McKinsey Center for Advanced Connectivity within McKinsey & Company’s Technology, Media & Telecommunications Practice, and advises telecommunications companies on strategy, marketing, and operations, including mobile operators that are launching adjacent businesses in areas such as mobile health and money services. He also co-leads McKinsey’s research on deploying and commercializing next-generation infrastructures, such as fiber, mobile broadband, and 5G networks.

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