Industries · Telecom
Telecom: mobile and fixed networks
How mobile and fixed-line operators earn subscribers times ARPU on networks with very high fixed costs, why churn, spectrum, towers, and capital spending shape the industry, how the economics of a fiber roll-out work, and how telecom markets differ in India, the Gulf, Europe, the US, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
Key takeaways
- A telecom operator builds an expensive network once and then sells access to it every month.
- A fiber network costs almost the same to build whether 20 or 60 percent of homes sign up.
- Telecom markets are national, usually with three or four operators. The number of competitors, the price level, and the regulator's stance explain most of an operator's profit.
- Explain the telecom value chain from spectrum to customer care
- Use ARPU, churn, EBITDA margin, and capital intensity to judge an operator
- Calculate the payback of a fiber roll-out and show why take-up is the key driver
- Explain towers, spectrum auctions, and network sharing
- Crack typical telecom cases on churn, pricing, investment, and mergers
Lessons
How telecom operators work and make money
Products, the network value chain, spectrum and towers, the cost structure, and the key metrics.
Telecom unit economics: fiber roll-out, churn, and capex
Work out the payback of a fiber build, the cost of churn, and operating free cash flow.
Telecom: players, trends, regulation, and how to crack the cases
Examples of operators and tower companies by region, trends from 2024 to 2026, regulation basics, and typical case prompts.
Worked cases in this module
Look it up
Key terms