Ovum claimed the Asia-Pacific region would experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in mobile service revenues of 2.4 percent between 2011 and 2016, and that voice revenue would start to decline by 2014, falling from $US195.2 billion in 2011 to $US193.7 billion in 2016.
Ovum senior analyst and author of the report, Emeka Obiodu, said voice would continue to play a key role in the Asia-Pacific mobile market, but that telcos would turn to data consumption to increase their revenues, which he expected to grow up to $US145 billion in 2016.
'From 2014, voice revenues in AP will begin to decline as operators struggle to derive new revenues from customers and the significance of the market's shift towards data becomes even more apparent,' he said. 'In 2016, non-voice revenues will no longer be a supplement to voice revenues.Instead, they will begin to replace them.'
Figures suggest that mobile connections in Asia-Pacific will achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.4 percent over the next five years, a growth mostly driven by consumers in China, India and Indonesia.
'(The) mobile connection growth will largely be driven by the 'mega emerging markets' of China, India and Indonesia due to their market size and relatively low mobile penetration levels,' the report stated.'In fact these three markets will have 3 billion connections between them in 2016, accounting for 72 percent of connections in AP and 38 percent of the global total."
According to Ovum, the developed countries of the region - with the exception of Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore - will have a lower connection CAGR than their developing counterparts. 'In these markets, some of the main drivers of connection growth (pent-up demand, population growth, and multiple SIM ownership) are absent, while connection growth is stifled by market maturity,' Obiodu said.
