"Line Extensions" Will Drive At Least 1/2 of Telco New Revenues

About half of revenue growth over the next three years will come from new lines of business, telco executives believe. But most of that opportunity still consists of line extensions built on current capabilities, according to STL Partners

Existing core services might provide upside up to about nine percent, STL Partners reports. Vertical industry services have potential to provide as much as 10 percent of revenue growth.

Infrastructure services (wholesale services, essentially) might provide eight percent of growth. Allowing third parties to embed communications features into their apps might drive 10 percent of growth. Providing other services to third party app providers could represent as much as 12 percent of revenue growth over the next three years.

Telcos providing their own "over the top" apps might provide five percent of revenue growth.

The takeaway is not so much that half of potential new revenue will come from new lines of business, but more that each opportunity builds logically from what service providers already provide.