Revenues from mobile data services are set to exceed $200 billion (100 billion) this year for the first time, according to data sourced from Informa Telecoms & Medias latest World Cellular Data Metrics edition, which has just been published. Total mobile data revenues in 2007 were approximately $157 billion.
Research from the first quarter of 2008 reveals that mobile data service revenues exceeded $49 billion, a 43% year-on-year increase. This figure means that mobile operators now generate approximately one fifth of their revenue from data services, says Informa, adding that this is significant, given that a general slowdown in voice revenues is forcing the pace around the importance of data services for mobile operators. Informa estimates that non-SMS data contributed $17.48 billion of revenue in Q1 2008, accounting for 35.6% of total data revenues.
Growth drivers for the increase in data revenues include the acceleration in deployment of advanced technologies, an increasingly competitive market, and of course, growing consumer demand for mobile data services driven by popular data-optimised devices such as Apples iPhone, says Informa Principal Analyst, Nick Jotischky.
The Asia Pacific region comprises 40% of the worlds data revenues (over $20 billion in Q1 08), representing an above average year-on-year growth rate of 48%. The biggest regional riser, however, is the Middle East, which, despite contributing just 2% of the worlds data revenues in the first quarter of 2008, has seen a 92% year-on-year increase in this figure to $927 million. Aiding this acceleration is the 321% year-on-year rise in the number of HSPA subscribers in the region, which reached 2.9 million by the end of March 2008.
Informa notes that further next-generation deployment should also ensure rapid growth in Africa and the Americas, which accounted for just 2% and 5% of global data revenues at the end of Q1 08. With the increased deployment of fixed wireless telephony, the popularity of EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimised) datacards continues to spread across Africa, now available in 18 markets. Similarly, in Latin America, operators are hopeful for increases in data revenues from WCDMA and HSDPA launches.
According to Informa Telecoms & Medias World Cellular Data Metrics, the operator to generate the highest non-voice revenues in the quarter is Japans NTT DoCoMo ($3.6 billion), having overtaken China Mobile ($3.5 billion), which had been the largest generator of data revenues for the previous three quarters.
In terms of data as a percentage of overall revenue, Filipino mobile operator Smart Communications is the worlds market leader and the only carrier to depend on non-voice revenues for more than 50% of its income, such is the high level of SMS usage in the country.