According to a recent report by MTN Consulting, the Capex of telecom operators, webscale, and carrier-neutral operators is expected to rise from a total of $420 billion in 2019 to $520 billion by 2025.

Further, the report added that, the telcos will account for 53 per cent of industry capex by 2025, from 9 per cent in 2019; webscale operators will grow from 25 per cent to 39 per cent in the same timeframe; and, carrier-neutral providers will add 8 per cent of total capex in 2025 from their 2019 level of 6 per cent.

As telcos deploy automation more widely and cast off parts of their network to the carrier-neutral sector, their employee base should decline from 5.1 million in 2019 to 4.5 million in 2025, the report added. The cost of the average telco employee will rise significantly in the same timeframe, as they will require many of the same software and IT skills currently prevalent in the webscale workforce, it said.

Further, the report highlighted that webscale operators have already grown from 1.3 million staff in 2011 to 2.8 million in 2019, but continued rapid growth in the sector (especially its ecommerce arms) will spur further growth in employment to reach roughly 4.8 million by 2025. The carrier-neutral sector’s headcount will grow far more modestly, rising from 90 million in 2019 to about 119 million in 2025. Managing physical assets like towers tends to involve a far lighter human touch than managing network equipment and software.

According to it, for 2020, telco, webscale, and carrier-neutral revenues are likely to reach $1.75 trillion, $1.63 trillion, and $71 billion, amounting to an on-year growth of -3.7 per cent, +12.2 per cent, and 5.0per cent, respectively. By 2025, the webscale sector will dominate with revenues of approximately $2.51 trillion, followed by $1.88 trillion for the telecom sector and $108 billion for carrier-neutral operators (CNNOs).

Further, it noted that telcos will continue to shift towards more software-centric operations and automation of networks and customer touchpoints, and will actively seek to collaborate with webscale operators and carrier-neutral sector to operate profitably. Furthermore, some of the biggest telcos will source their physical infrastructure from carrier-neutral providers and will depend heavily on webscale partners to manage their clouds and support new enterprise and 5G services.