Recession Didn't Affect Mobile Market in Middle East and North Africa

The mobile phone market around the world has been greatly affected by the economic turmoil during the last year, that's no secret. Handset sales were slower than before, users consumed less services from wireless carriers, driving revenues downwards, and many players in the telecoms industry registered great loses. Even so, it seems that not all markets were affected in the same way, and that emerging countries of the Middle East and North Africa were little affected by the recession.

According to a recently published report from Strategy Analytics, dubbed “Emerging Markets Mobile Subscriptions Forecast, 2010-15: Middle East & North Africa,” (available on the research firm's website here) not only was the market in Middle East and North Africa unaffected by the global economic downturn, but it should also show strong growth during the next five years.

“Multinational players, such as Vodafone and France Telecom are looking to build their presence, along with growing regional powerhouses like MTN and Etisalat,” Tom Elliott, Director of Strategy Analytics Emerging Markets Communications Strategies service, and author of the forecast, commented on the report's findings. “There may be some pressure on margins as the landscape gets sorted out, but it will be good for consumers.”

Markets like Egypt and Jordan are expected to increase by around 35 to 40 percent during the said period of time, while Turkey, a more mature market, should register a growth in subscription numbers at a rate of around 4.5 percent per year until 2015. The Strategy Analytics report also shows that mobile voice traffic in the region has all the chances to nearly double during the next five years, as carriers would lower tariffs due to increasing competition, as well as courtesy of expanding their customer base.

More developing countries in the region are awarding 3G licenses, something that should result in an impressive growth in data services, and, consequently, in revenues growth. “When you see an operator like Turkcell getting upwards of 15% of revenue from data in a country that didn’t have 3G service two years ago, you realize the tremendous potential for non-voice services in the region,” Phil Kendall, Director of Strategy Analytics Wireless Network Strategies service, concluded.