1、MEF CONNECTIVITY YEARBOOK 2023Your complete guide to the current state of wholesale voice,messaging and dataC NTENTSINTRODUCTION.4THE MEF CONNECTIVITY PROGRAMME.10MARKET SIZE AND FORECASTS/INDUSTRY M&A.14KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN VOICE.19KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN MESSAGING.24KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN IOT,DATA AND ROA

2、MING.29CONCLUSIONS AND TAKE-AWAYS.3823MEF-CONNECTIVITY YEARBOOK 2023BACK TO CONTENTSHalf a century ago,the mobile industry connected two people for the first time.Today,the total number of connections is closing in on 11 billion.What does this tell us?First,it reflects the universal human desire to

3、communicate(and pay to do so).Second,from the telco point of view,it reveals that for all the success of value-added mobile services,our industrys foundation will always be connectivity.Of course,it takes a large community of specialists to keep billions of people and things connected.Working with o

4、perators are interconnection aggregators,number look up firms,anti-fraud specialists,equipment vendors and many more.We occasionally file this cohort under the umbrella term:wholesalers.But this label seems a little,well,old-school now.Why?Because connectivity has moved on from negotiating agreement

5、s to route homogenous voice traffic.Today,it encompasses a menu of products including messaging products(from text to WhatsApp),fixed wireless access,the internet of things and private mobile networks.As a result,important functions such as billing,roaming and customer care have become much more com

6、plicated.How can this complexity be managed?The MEF is well-placed to consider the options.MEFs Connectivity workstream comprises virtually every major company active in the sector.Our members are committed to building the best possible future for the industry.And information is key to that process,