Subscriber Data Management Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The Subscriber Data Management Market is expected to register a CAGR of greater than 14% during the forecast period (2021 - 2026). Subscriber Data Management (SDM) is one of the most critical functions in telecommunication networks. With the arrival of 5G and the evolution of cloud architectures, managing all subscribers’ data and services efficiently has never been essential to ensure an operator’s business profitability.

Key Highlights

• The evolution of telecom services from 4G to 5G has led to an architectural overhaul of the network, requiring operators to rethink how they manage data coming, going, and moving through the network. As communication services continue to evolve, more database capacity has become a requirement, leading to a higher total cost of ownership (TCO) and a more fragmented view of customer data for silo-based networks.
• The commercial deployment of 5G is anticipated to see some significant changes in subscriber data management. According to Enea, change from 4G to 5G is profound in terms of protocols and interfaces and, more importantly, because 5G explicitly requires a split between data and network functions. This indicates that a universal subscriber data repository is needed to keep all subscriber information at the back end.
• The increase in mobile users and mobile devices, adoption of network function virtualization (NFV) and IP systems, and increased subscribers demand LTE and VoLTE technologies, among others, is significantly demanding the need for subscribers data management.
• Following this, many Mobile Service Providers (MSPs) are already on an aim to unlock commercial value from remote data. Data lakes are increasingly being seen as a competitive benefit to streamline operations and pursue new revenue streams. To end this, subscriber data management works as a bellwether of new industry alliances and partnerships that tackle the challenge of calibrating dispersed, siloed, and distinct datasets under a single control plane. Major vendors like Nokia, Ericsson, and Openwave (an Enea company) have launched telecoms-centric solutions designed under a cloud-native architecture, including open APIs and standardized interfaces.

Key Market Trends

Subscriber Identity Management to Witness Considerable Share

• Identity management is fundamentally about managing and authenticating the identity of a user. The subscriber data to be handled comprises identity information, such as multi-Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services Digital Network (MSISDN) & International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), authentication information, personalization information, policy settings, and settings for special services. Simultaneously with this, it enables operators to share subscriber.
• Further, the increase in cyberattacks related to the phishing of subscriber identity is anticipated to boost the demand for Subscriber Identity Management. Data can be miss used for unauthorized monitoring or surveillance even without knowledge of the content of communications, traffic data, or localized EMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity). Such an attack or unintended disclosure can potentially reveal large amounts of personal information and provide a detailed profile of an unsuspecting user unless the network monitoring is adequately secured. This is generating the need for identity management.

Asia-Pacific to Witness Highest Growth

• Due to the presence of a large number of Telecom operators and subscribers in the region, Asia-Pacific is anticipated to witness the highest growth. The demand for subscriber data management is expected to increase with the number of telecom subscribers.
• According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the number of telephone subscribers in India increased from 1,186.63 million at the end of June 2019 to 1,195.24 million at the end of September 2019, registering a growth rate of 0.73% over the previous quarter. This reflects a year-on-year (Y-O-Y) growth rate of 0.32% over the same quarter of last year.
• Telephone subscription in Urban areas have increased from 675.58 million at the end of June 2019 to 677.95 million at the end of September 2019. However, Urban Teledensity declined from 160.78 to 160.63 during the same period. Securely managing the data of the increase in the number of subscribers has generated demand for the market studied.
• Owing to this need, the region has been witnessing partnerships among the SDM providers and the telecom operators. For instance, in June 2020, China Telecom partnered with Nokia's core networking products for 5G. This partnership includes multiple Nokia Software, ION products, Unified Data Management, User Plane, and Session Management Functions. Nokia currently has a 17% market share in China Unicom's rapidly expanding VoLTE network, where it has deployed Nokia's cloud-based vIMS platform. This deal will further enhance the long term partnership between China Unicom and Nokia.

Competitive Landscape

The market for the subscriber data management market is witnessing an increase in competition owing to the presence of a prominent market operating in the market. The market appears to be moderately-high concentrated, with significant players adopting strategies like product and service innovation, partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions. Some of the major players in the market are Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE Corporation, and Cisco Systems Inc., among others.

• February 2020 - Enea's Openwave Mobility Inc. launched the Enea Unified Data Manager, a hardware-agnostic, cloud-native network function for 4G and 5G data management. The software implements the 3GPP functions of Unified Data Management (UDM) in 5G networks and interoperates with several Home Subscriber Server (HSS) in 4G.
• November 2019 - Ireland's communications service provider, eir, has launched its 5G network across the country. Powered by products from Ericsson's 5G Core offering and supported with Subscriber Data Management solutions, customers across Ireland will now be able to connect to 5G and benefit from enhanced Mobile Broadband and Fixed Wireless Access.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support