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) anchor authentication, charging and lawful interception. Any protocol that leaks a permanent identifier is treated as a privacy defect, which is why 5G introduced SUCI concealment on the air interface.

OSS/BSS platforms hold the highest-value subscriber and revenue data on the operator side, are heavily targeted for fraud and insider abuse, and are in scope for NIS2 and the UK Telecoms Security Act.

To place ARPU in the wider telecom-security picture, review DSLAM, eSIM (Embedded SIM, eUICC), IP Address, PDN, Privacy by Design and SECA — each entry cross-references back to this page so you can walk the topic in either direction.

Related terms

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Browse the full TelcoSec Glossary, the Ultimate Guide to Mobile Network Security, or the P1 Arsenal of telecom-security tools.