Deutsche Telekom CEO Timotheus Hoettges tipped the wireless industry to grow through the revenue share opportunities offered by IoT in the era of 5G, rather than focusing on charging for connectivity.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Hoettges (pictured) said his company – and the industry as a whole – could derive extensive benefits from taking direct revenue on the services built on mobile and fixed infrastructure.

“Our ecosystem is changing into a model where we participate in the revenue of the solution space,” he added: “The connectivity is just a small fraction of it.”

The company already started deploying this model in installations such as a smart parking scheme in Hamburg. Here, Deutsche Telekom does not charge the city for supplying the infrastructure, but takes a cut of the parking fee. The system uses its narrowband IoT network and software platform provided by its business services division T-Systems.

Hoettges added success in the telecoms “renaissance” would be built around these types of revenue share models.

The interview was part of the news channel’s coverage of the DLD Conference in Munich, where the executive outlined new business cases and the company’s ongoing convergence strategy across its footprint.

Discussing its strategy in Europe, Hoettges reiterated the company’s commitment to providing converged services, stating it can now offer both mobile and fixed connectivity across its footprint on the continent. This is through its own infrastructure investments, recently acquired assets or deals with existing local fixed providers.

The executive described it as the “one business model for Europe”.