Global telecom service revenues reached USD 1.14 trillion, and according to PwC’s Global Telecom Outlook 2024–2028, they are expected to grow at a modest compound annual growth rate of 2.9% through 2028, well below the projected global inflation rate (Source: PwC Global Telecom Outlook 2024–2028). This slow growth shows a clear challenge for telecom operators: even though more customers are using mobile services and data, profits are shrinking, and traditional sources of revenue are under pressure.
Multiple forces are driving this urgency. Core revenue from voice and SMS continues to shrink, cannibalized by over-the-top (OTT) platforms like WhatsApp, Netflix, and YouTube. At the same time, capital expenditures are rising, especially as operators invest in 5G, fibre, and network virtualization. This paradox—growing data traffic but falling average revenue per user (ARPU)—pushes telcos to rethink their business models and uncover new growth engines.
Digitization is no longer a side project; it’s a strategic necessity. Operators who once defined themselves by connectivity must now embrace platforms, data, and customer experience as competitive differentiators. This shift means transforming internal operations, automating customer journeys, building new digital marketing services, and monetizing vast subscriber data more effectively.
In this new digital paradigm, advertising technology (ad tech) plays a vital role. Platforms like moLotus, Google Ads, Meta Ads, and WhatsApp Business are helping telcos unlock new value from their data, personalize customer engagement at scale, and tap into high-margin digital revenue streams without massive infrastructure investments. moLotus, for example, digitizes business processes, helps telecoms to deliver mobile video campaigns straight to subscriber inboxes—no mobile apps, no data plans required—enabling personalized, spam-free ads that improve customer experience and profitability.
As we explore the top five digitization opportunities for telecom operators, this article will demonstrate how embracing the right platforms and strategies can help telcos survive and lead in the fast-evolving digital economy.
1. Unlocking New Revenue Streams via Ad Tech
In an increasingly digital economy, telecom operators are uniquely positioned to unlock new high-margin revenue streams through ad tech. With massive subscriber bases and rich first-party data, telcos have the foundation to become key players in mobile advertising, offering targeted, personalized campaigns at scale while staying compliant with data privacy regulations such as GDPR and local telecom laws.
By utilizing platforms like moLotus, Google Ads, Meta Ads, and WhatsApp Business, telcos can move beyond basic connectivity services and become digital advertising enablers. For instance, moLotus, a mobile video customer interaction platform, allows telcos to run hyper-personalized, app-free video ad campaigns delivered directly to subscribers' mobile inboxes. These campaigns require no data plans, are spam-free, and support quick customer interaction options such as mgram, web click-throughs, SMS, and USSD, making them ideal for brands aiming to reach mobile-first users in global markets.
Google Ads and Meta Ads allow telcos to tap into advanced audience segmentation and retargeting tools. By integrating telco data with these platforms, operators can offer advertisers greater precision in campaign delivery. For example, a telco might segment subscribers by usage patterns or handset types and use Meta’s lookalike audiences to help a local smartphone brand target potential upgraders.
WhatsApp Business also offers new opportunities for telecom operators to partner with Small and Medium Enterprises for conversational commerce. A telco could offer small businesses integrated marketing solutions that combine its reach with WhatsApp’s direct engagement features, helping local stores promote time-sensitive offers via rich media messages.
Real-world examples are emerging. Telcos like Telkomsel and Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison have collaborated with ad tech platforms to help SMEs run localized video campaigns via moLotus, generating additional ad revenue while supporting digital inclusion. Such partnerships empower advertisers with cost-effective reach while enabling telcos to monetize existing infrastructure without incurring heavy new investments.
Ultimately, by embracing ad tech, telecom operators can transform their vast data resources and subscriber relationships into a scalable advertising ecosystem—one that delivers value to consumers, advertisers, and the telcos themselves.
2. Reinventing the Core Through Digital Processes
As customer expectations rise and operational costs continue to pressure margins, telecom operators must reimagine their core business processes through digitization. Moving away from manual, fragmented service models toward seamless, digital-first experiences can lead to significant cost savings, improved customer satisfaction, and higher retention.
Telcos are now investing in the digitization of omnichannel customer journeys—from onboarding and bill payments to plan upgrades and service support. These journeys, when digitized, reduce the need for physical touchpoints, minimize call center dependency, and ensure faster, more consistent service delivery across all channels, including mobile, web, and social platforms.
Platforms like moLotus are playing a transformative role in this shift. moLotus allows mobile operators to automate processes such as plan renewals, new customer onboarding, payment reminders, upselling, cross-selling, reward campaigns, and customer support using rich-media messages. These messages are delivered directly to users’ mobile inboxes (SMS or MMS) without requiring any app or data usage. The platform supports interactivity via SMS replies, USSD codes, or call-back options, making it easy for users to respond in real-time. For instance, a telecom operator using moLotus can automate a personalized onboarding video for every new subscriber, complete with their name, plan details, and next steps—all without involving a customer service representative.
Alongside automation, data analytics and CRM integration are essential for refining and personalizing these journeys. By analyzing usage data, preferences, demographics, and behavior, telcos can tailor interactions—like sending targeted upgrade offers or reminders about unused features—based on individual needs. Integration with platforms like Salesforce or Zoho CRM further enables real-time tracking of customer interactions, ensuring continuity and relevance throughout the lifecycle.
Several telcos have already seen measurable gains from this transformation. For example, a Southeast Asian telecom reduced customer acquisition costs by 30% and improved NPS (Net Promoter Score) by digitizing its onboarding and service interactions via mobile video workflows powered by moLotus.
By digitizing the core, telecom operators not only streamline operations and reduce cost per interaction, but also enhance personalization, build loyalty, and unlock long-term value—key differentiators in an increasingly competitive market.
3. Subscriber Data Monetization
Telecom operators today hold one of the most powerful competitive assets in the digital economy—extensive subscriber data. With access to vast volumes of behavioral, demographic, location, and usage information, telcos are uniquely positioned to convert this data into actionable insights that fuel top-line growth and operational efficiency. Yet, despite the depth of data available, many telcos are still underutilising its full potential.
The shift toward subscriber data monetization is not just about generating new revenue streams—it’s about fundamentally transforming how telcos operate and create value. Advanced analytics and automation tools now allow telcos to process subscriber data in real-time, enabling them to make smarter decisions, offer more personalized experiences, and generate direct advertising revenue by targeting the right message to the right customer at the right moment.
Platforms like moLotus are accelerating this transformation. moLotus offers telecom operators powerful data curation, segmentation, and campaign automation capabilities, enabling them to mine subscriber data effectively. Its campaigns are designed to use telco-owned first-party data—ensuring full compliance with privacy regulations—to deliver personalized mobile video messages that reflect user behavior, preferences, and history. For example, a telco can launch a handset upgrade campaign targeting only users with devices older than two years, personalized by brand preferences, budget range, and past engagement history—all made possible by moLotus’s data-layer integration.
The platform further simplifies campaign tracking and decision-making by generating real-time analytics and structured reports. These insights allow marketing teams to assess campaign effectiveness, optimize in-flight activities, and strategize future outreach—all while maintaining control over subscriber data without third-party leakage.
Beyond advertising, subscriber data can also be monetized through partnerships with brands, agencies, or even sectors like retail and healthcare. Telcos can offer anonymized, aggregated customer insights to help these partners understand market trends, customer mobility, and engagement patterns, unlocking new B2B revenue opportunities.
By investing in platforms like moLotus and embedding automation and analytics into their core operations, telecom operators can turn their subscriber data into a high-value strategic asset. Done right, data monetization not only boosts revenue but also sharpens competitiveness and deepens customer relationships in an increasingly digital-first telecom landscape.
4. Automating and Scaling Operations with AI
As telecom operators face mounting pressure to reduce operational costs and improve responsiveness, automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are becoming indispensable tools. From customer support and campaign execution to network management and marketing, telcos are integrating AI across multiple functions to increase agility, enhance customer satisfaction, and protect margins.
In marketing specifically, AI is transforming how telecoms manage high-volume customer engagement. A prime example is moLotus, which offers AI-driven automation capabilities that allow telcos to execute large-scale, hyper-personalized mobile campaigns without manual intervention. The platform’s AI Agents act as virtual brand representatives, capable of handling millions of mobile video messages, each tailored to the recipient’s behavior, preferences, and lifecycle stage. These agents dynamically deliver relevant upsell offers, cross-sells, service reminders, loyalty rewards, or onboarding assistance.
This intelligent automation eliminates the need for call center support in many customer-facing interactions, drastically lowering customer acquisition and retention costs. For instance, a telecom operator in Southeast Asia using moLotus AI Agents reported a 25% reduction in churn and a 30% cost saving in outbound communications, while increasing customer satisfaction scores through timely, relevant outreach.
In the broader ad tech ecosystem, tools like Google’s Performance Max and Meta’s Advantage+ are also equipping telcos with AI-powered automation. Performance Max automatically optimizes ad placements across Search, YouTube, Gmail, and the Display Network, using machine learning to predict user intent and allocate budgets accordingly. This helps telcos reach users with minimal manual setup, especially in markets where telecom-specific keywords are highly competitive.
Meta’s Advantage+ suite simplifies campaign creation by using AI to handle audience targeting, creative distribution, and budget allocation. Telcos using Facebook or Instagram ads can launch campaigns more efficiently, reduce testing cycles, and let the system optimize for conversions across multiple ad formats and placements.
Together, these platforms—moLotus, Google, and Meta—demonstrate how AI and automation are not just about speed and scale, but about smarter decision-making. By adopting such tools, telcos can free up internal resources, respond faster to market dynamics, and deliver highly personalized experiences at scale, transforming operational efficiency into a sustainable competitive advantage.
5. Enhancing Customer Loyalty with Digital Engagement
In today’s hyper-competitive telecom landscape, retaining existing customers is just as critical—if not more so—than acquiring new ones. With the high costs of customer acquisition and the increasing ease of switching providers, telecom operators must prioritize loyalty as a core business objective. Digital engagement, powered by personalization and intelligent campaign delivery, is proving to be one of the most effective levers for building long-term customer relationships.
Platforms such as Google Ads and Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) play a significant role in helping telcos sustain engagement across the customer lifecycle. Google’s Performance Max campaigns allow telcos to create and serve personalized promotions—such as plan upgrades, bonus data, or discounts for long-term customers—based on browsing behavior and intent. Meta Ads, meanwhile, enable the delivery of interactive, visually rich campaigns that can be finely targeted based on demographics, interests, and purchase history, keeping telcos top-of-mind among users.
However, platforms like moLotus are taking customer loyalty even further by offering unique loyalty campaigns. These loyalty campaigns are personalized using customer names, subscription history, and usage patterns, and include rich media formats ike dynamic greetings, offers, and videos. What sets moLotus apart is its ability to automate loyalty campaigns at scale—whether it’s periodic thank-you messages, festive offers, or milestone rewards—without additional infrastructure or resource burdens. Telcos in markets like Indonesia and India have used moLotus to run targeted loyalty programs that not only boost customer satisfaction but also drive incremental revenue through upselling and renewals. moLotus-powered mobile loyalty cards have innovated the loyalty card space, providing an easy and cost-effective alternative for telco customers.
Ultimately, digital engagement platforms empower telcos to move beyond transactional relationships and cultivate emotional loyalty. By delivering timely, relevant, and interactive experiences across mobile channels, telcos can enhance customer stickiness, reduce churn, and create long-term brand advocates.
Conclusion
As telecom operators increasingly cross the bridge from infrastructure providers to digital innovators, they are emerging as powerful drivers in the advertising and customer engagement landscape. Mobile advertising has proven to be not just an adjunct revenue source but a central engine for growth, customer retention, and loyalty in 2025. Agile, subscriber-centric platforms—such as moLotus, Google Ads, Meta Ads, WhatsApp, and TikTok—offer telcos the ability to reach users directly, personalize at scale, and build enduring customer relationships.
By integrating these adtech capabilities into their core strategies, telecoms can diversify income, optimize margins, and strengthen their competitive edge. The message for senior leaders is clear: embracing mobile-first ad platforms is essential not only for immediate financial gains but also to future-proof operations in a fast-evolving digital economy.
