14 DAY TRIAL // Mobile voice service revenues are expected to start going on a downward route as soon as 2011 is here, a recently published report from ABI Research shows. According to the research firm, the revenues in the mobile voice area are expected to reach their peak in 2010, which started to decline during the following year.
“Mobile voice has had a meteoric rise since digital cellular networks such as GSM were deployed in 1992. ABI Research forecasts annual mobile voice revenues to reach $580 billion in 2010. From 2011 on, rising subscriber saturation will increasingly erode mobile voice revenues, not just in developed markets but also in a number of emerging markets. By 2014, mobile voice revenues will have contracted by 9.6%,” stated vice-president for forecasting Jake Saunders.
There are a wide range of services available today from mobile phone operators all around the world, and it seems that the substantial boost they receive from value-added services, including messaging and Mobile Internet, is putting a lot of pressure on a variety of other services and on carriers. According to ABI Research, the mobile data services are expected to reach $169 million in revenues in 2009, and they will grow at a CAGR of 9% until 2014.
However, the research firm also notes that declines in annual average revenue per user (ARPU) will be sharp in Asia-Pacific (-8.7% to $105) and Africa (-7.8% to $134) during the ongoing year. ARPU in North America also dropped, but only by -0.6% to $526, yet mobile Internet revenue ($52) from smartphones and netbooks should result in a rise in overall service revenue.
The wireless capital expenditure went down by 5% in 2009, reaching $132.5 billion, as the recession affected companies all around the world. Saunders commented, “As handset sales plummeted in 4Q-2009, end-users did not return their handsets nor did they put their handsets aside and refuse to use them. They did, however, try to cap tariff plan usage. Carriers therefore held up a number of CAPEX-related projects to free up some cashflow.”
The “Mobile Operator Performance Benchmarks Market Data” and “Mobile End-User ARPU, Usage, and Traffic Benchmarks” reports from ABI Research can be found on the firm's website.