Mobile broadband $137 billion by 2014, but access prices to drop

Peter Dinham
Thursday, 26 March 2009 14:29

IT Industry - Deals

According to the report, the net result of the erosion is that ARPU will decline at the same time as usage increases, both in terms of number of users and most likely the amount of data consumed per user.
 
“This will mean that ever more data per user will need to be carried on mobile operators’ networks for less revenue,” Hartley and Mackenzie predict.

Mackenzie says that several operators have touted the idea of plugging the ARPU decline with value added services, yet “we are yet to see anything sufficiently compelling in either the laptop or handset space.”

But, according to Hartley, evidence from other broadband markets suggests that banking on such revenue to make business cases fly can be extremely dangerous.
 
Hartley says that the only alternative is to employ ever more ruthless network efficiency to reduce opex sufficiently in order to defend margins, but makes the point that the dilemma is that by 2014 network quality will have become an increasingly important service differentiator.
 
Therefore, in Ovum’s view, balancing both sides of the equation will need to become an essential skill for mobile operators if they want to enjoy a share of the mobile broadband spoils.