Business model for rural connectivity using multi-tenancy 5G network slicing

Abstract

Rural areas are often neglected while deploying newer mobile technologies. Hence, these place are digitally disconnected from the world. To overcome this challenge, 5G network slicing supporting multi-tenancy, also known as neutral host network, is studied to improve rural connectivity. The infrastructure provider (InP) deploys the rural 5G network and mobile network operators (MNOs) lease the slices from InP to serve their end-users. This aims to study the value network configuration (VNC) for the 5G network slicing architecture to understand the possible business model. As a result, three configurations are defined driven by micro-operator, MNO and community end-users respectively. The business models are constructed using SWOT analysis and business canvas models. The revenue streams for the proposed rural network are analyzed.