Mobile industry keeps moving, despite downturn

Peter Dinham
Thursday, 30 April 2009 15:07

Business IT - Technology

Mobile operators are seemingly making a good fist of business and showing their resilience in the face of the economic downturn, with operators maintaining revenue and customer growth slowing but still continuing.

A report from analysts, Ovum, released today says that mobile operators around the world are not only steadily beating the recession, but they’re doing it “comfortably”.

Ovum’s report tracked the performance of mobile operators across all regions in the world for 2008, and, overall, the research firm says operators maintained revenue and customer growth during the period, although the rate of growth was down.
 
Emeka Obiodu, senior analyst at Ovum, says that, while most operators in emerging markets are yet to see any significant pressures on their performance, operators in countries such as the US and across Europe, where the recession has had dramatic impact, “operators’ revenues are holding out.”

“Indeed, it is not about immunity from the recession per se, but rather, adaptability to the downturn,” reports Obiodu.

Obiodu says it is comforting that mobile operators have shown what he calls “remarkable resilience”, further commenting that, whereas other industries have gone to the government with their begging bowls, mobile operators are actually “pledging to invest billions to roll out a new high speed mobile network. In fact, after scouring the world, we are yet to find any mobile operator that is calamitously struggling solely because of the recession.”

According to Ovum, the threat to the number of revenue generating customers has yet to materialise as operators are generally still growing and adding customers, and, he says, while the fear that existing customers will reduce their spending is valid, mobile operators have taken steps to avoid or ameliorate drastic impact.
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