ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)

A key business metric in telecommunications calculated as total revenue divided by the number of active subscribers. ARPU helps carriers assess service profitability and monitor the financial impact of security breaches.

Categories: Identity and SubscriberOperations and BusinessEncryption and Cryptography

ARPU in context

Subscriber identifiers (IMSI, SUPI, MSISDN, IMEI) are the anchor for authentication, charging, lawful interception and fraud analytics. Any protocol or interface that leaks a permanent identifier is treated as a serious privacy defect, which is why 5G introduced SUCI concealment on the air interface.

OSS/BSS platforms (provisioning, charging, mediation, order management) hold the highest-value subscriber and revenue data on the operator side. They are heavily targeted for fraud and insider abuse and are increasingly in scope for regulatory obligations like NIS2 and the UK Telecoms Security Act.

To place ARPU in the wider telecom-security picture, review DSLAM, BSS, PDN, SECA, eSIM (Embedded SIM, eUICC) and IAMF.

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