Cellphone industry has more economic impact than TV

Stuart Corner
Sunday, 18 September 2005 10:14

IT Industry - Deals

A report commissioned from the Allen Consulting Group by the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) claims that the economic significance of the Australian mobile phone industry is greater than that of the free-to-air television services industry, the newspaper printing and publishing industry or the computer consultancy services sector.

The report says that the industry gross product for the mobile phone industry in 2004-05 was $6.1 billion, up from $5.3 billion in the previous year. Revenue in 2004-05 was $9.9 billion and it is estimated to rise to $11.9 billion in 2005-06.

In 2004-05 the industry employed about 33,600 people who were paid about $1.3 billion in wages and accounted for 30 percent of the total employment in the telecommunications industry. The report put capital expenditure by the industry on new networks at $10 billion since 1997.

In 2004-05, the mobile phone penetration rate was 81 percent (16.2 million subscribers). It is estimated to exceed 94 percent (almost 19 million subscribers) in 2005-06. About 70 percent of the growth in subscribers in 2004-05 came from customers who are choosing prepaids accounts and by June 2006 these are expected to account for close to 50 percent of the total.

The report was commissioned by AMTA to enable it to "To better understand the economic significance of the mobile telecommunications industry in Australia". An executive summary is available here.