DRIVEN BY VIDEO and other bandwidth-hungry data applications, revenue from consumer telecommunication network services will grow at a steady annual clip of about 5.7%, on average, over the next five years, says technology research firm In-Stat.
The strongest growth will be in the broadband and pay TV sectors, but 60% of total revenue will be derived from consumer mobile services. The high-tech market research firm just completed some new research and aggregated it with existing research to produce a detailed quantitative analysis of this important market.
“The digital divide will continue to grow. By 2012 broadband penetration in developed countries will exceed 85%, while developing countries languish at less than 10% penetration” says Keith Nissen, the analyst who authored the report. “Over the next five years, 150 million PSTN lines will be eliminated; yet total voice revenue worldwide will remain steady. The (Middle East, Africa) and (Caribbean and Latin American) regions will experience high mobile subscriber growth. Mobile operators in developed nations must look to new 3G applications and bundled services for increased ARPU.
“Despite the anticipated rapid growth of telco TV services, in 2012, 73% of total pay TV households worldwide will still be cable TV service subscribers,” added Nissen.
In-Stat also found:
* The number of VOIP subscribers will more than double in the next four years.
* 2008 is the year that revenue from pay TV services surpasses revenues from fixed voice services.
* By 2012 broadband revenue will be getting close to fixed voice service revenue.
* While the Middle East and Africa region has the highest growth rate, the Asia-Pac region will be by far the largest market in 2012.
