mocoNews.net - Ofcom Report: Mobile Data Revenues Growing Five Times Faster Than Voice

Mobile voice revenues are still larger than those from mobile data, but mobile data revenues are growing five times faster, according to UK regulator Ofcom, in its third International Communications Market Report covering 2007, released today. Total mobile voice revenues in the UK, France, Germany, Italy, USA, Canada and Japan increased by 31 percent to £126 billion ($188 billion) over the five-year period, while corresponding data revenues increased by 171 percent to £35 billion ($52 billion). The rise is not such a surprise, says the report, given the growth in SMS usage and other data services. Indeed, while the report's conclusions aren't necessarily new or shocking, the hefty tome does provide exhaustive color of the £876 billion ($1.3 trillion) global communications market.

Highlights from the report:

-- Emerging markets leading on subs: Emerging economies are the market's growth area. In 2007, there were 216 million new mobile subscriptions in Brazil, Russia, India and China. China alone had more than 88 million new connections ? more than the total number of subscriptions in the UK (74 million).

-- Mobile music: Mobile music downloads now account for over half of all recorded digital music revenue in France, Italy and Japan. In Japan, mobile accounts for over 90 percent of all digital music revenue, compared to 29 percent for the UK.

More after the jump?

-- Social networking: Mobile social networking is taking off. 800,000 mobile subscribers in the UK and 4 million in the US access social networking sites using their phones, spurred on by better handets, faster network speeds and custom SNS mobile applications.

-- Mobile TV: Broadcast mobile television had a mixed year in 2007. Italy is the biggest market in Europe with nearly 1 million DVB-H subscribers.

-- SMS revenues: SMS still generates the majority of mobile data revenue, but there are some signs that this may be changing. In Sweden, non-SMS data services contributed 48 percent of total mobile data revenue, up from 34 percent in 2006. In the countries surveyed the proportion of non-SMS data revenue increased in the three years to 2007, and the largest increase was in Sweden, at 40 percentage points.

Release | Entire Report | Convergence Section in PDF | Telecoms Section in PDF