NEW DELHI: The largest growth in mobile broadband between 2012 and 2013 was in the Asia Pacific region, while it fell in Europe.
According to a study by Infonetics Research, the growth in the Asia Pacific region came close to $300 billion last year.
The study said Mobile broadband revenue will grow at an 11.8 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2013 to 2018.
Growth in Asia Pacific was 5 per cent, the Caribbean and Latin America 4 per cent, and North America 3 per cent, while there was a high single-digit decline in Europe.
While mobile broadband in Europe fell further from around $ 250 billion but is still just above $200 billion, it rose marginally in North America and but remains lower than $225 billion.
Mobile services revenues were just above $100 billion in 2012 and showed only a marginal increase, last year.
LTE services are expected to account for half of total mobile broadband service revenue in 2018, with North America making up the majority.
Mobile broadband has helped overall mobile service revenue growth in 2013, offsetting year-over-year decreases in voice and SMS revenue.
Despite the rise of mobile data, blended ARPU continues to fall or stay flat in every region except developing Asia Pacific, where it rose slightly in China.
Mobile broadband subscribers will pass postpaid voice subscribers by the end of 2014, said Infonetics. Voice services are expected to stay above 50 percent of total mobile service revenue through 2016.
Telecom operators’ 2013 revenue rose 1 per cent to $800 billion — from mobile services including mobile voice, SMS/MMS, and broadband.
Europe dragged global mobile service revenue in 2013, mainly due to mobile saturation and weak consumer spending. The research said price-based competition in markets including Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, and The Netherlands had also contributed to the decline.
Infonetics Research principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics Stephane Teral said: “CEOs of European telecoms Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefonica and Vodafone are pushing the European Commission for more consolidation to reduce the number of operators in each country, from four or five to just three.”
