The $24 Billion Data Business That Telecommunication Companies Don't Want to Talk About

UK grocer Morrisons, ad-buying behemoth GroupM and other marketers and agencies are testing never-before-available data from cellphone carriers that connects device location and other information with telecommunication company's real-world files on subscribers. Some services offer real-time heat maps showing the neighborhoods where store visitors go home at night, lists the sites they visited on mobile browsers recently and more. Under the radar, Verizon, Sprint, Telefonica and other carriers have partnered with firms including SAP, IBM, HP and AirSage to manage, package and sell various levels of data to marketers and other clients.

It's all part of a push by the world's largest phone operators to counteract diminishing subscriber growth through new business ventures that tap into the data that showers from consumers' mobile web surfing, text messaging and phone calls. The global market for telecom company data as a service is potentially worth $24.1 billion in 2015, on its way to $79 billion in 2020, according to estimates by 451 Research based on a survey of likely customers. "Challenges and constraints" mean operators are scraping just 10 percent of the possible market right now, though that will rise to 30 percent by 2020, 451 Research said. Insiders say phone carriers exploring data-sharing businesses are tight-lipped because they don't want to reveal too many details to competitors, but fear of consumer complaints is always lurking in the background.