Over the past few years, mobile operators across several markets have seen declining service revenues and falling levels of average revenue per user (ARPU).
It’s possible that mobile services are no longer the big moneymaker they were in the early 2000s. Here’s why.
Oman’s wireless market is shifting thanks to the growing popularity of MVNO services.
The Sultanate is home to two established network operators – Omantel and Ooredoo – as well as a pair of low-cost, pre-paid resellers in the shape of FRiENDi Mobile and Majan Telecommunication, which trades under the name Renna Mobile.
Broadband users had real skin in the game during Australia’s last parliamentary election. This is big, considering Australia is in the middle of the world’s craziest broadband project.
Once the hot new technology in telecoms, you could be forgiven for thinking that WiMAX is yesterday’s news. Many operators have already abandoned their WiMAX rollout plans in favour of LTE mobile systems or fixed line alternatives.
There is one country, however, where WiMAX is not only surviving, but thriving.
The popularity of 4G mobile services in China continues to take off and subscriber growth shows no signs of slowing.
With almost 576 million 4G customers at the end of June 2016, China is home to twice as many 4G users as the next largest market (the U.S.). But why?
The US cable TV and broadband sector has undergone a major period of consolidation in the last six months, signaling big changes in the market’s DNA.
Case in point: Charter Communications completed takeovers of Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Bright House Networks in May this year, while the Amsterdam-based telecoms investment firm Altice finalized buyouts of Suddenlink and Cablevision in December 2015 and June 2016, respectively.
The decision at the end of last month by Philippines conglomerate San Miguel Corp (SMC) to exit the local telecoms sector has left the country’s mobile market as a virtual duopoly. Further strengthening their dominant positions, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) and Globe Telecom have agreed to pay PHP69.1 billion (USD1.48 billion) to acquire SMC’s telecoms assets, which include wireless spectrum in the 700MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2300MHz and 2500MHz bands.
The latest figures from TeleGeography’s GlobalComms Database show that 4G LTE subscriptions now account for around 17% of all mobile connections worldwide. LTE passed one billion subscribers just before the end of 2015, and had reached 1.23 billion by the end of March 2016. Just four years ago, however, the total was below ten million. By contrast, 3G technology took twice as long as LTE to go from just under ten million to one billion.
The recent decision by the European Commission (EC) to block the combination of UK cellular operators O2 and 3, along with its opposition to a merger of mobile providers in Denmark in 2015 and the launch of an in-depth investigation into a planned tie-up between two cellcos in Italy, has signalled a tougher stance towards any threat to competition in wireless markets. The situation is very different, however, when it comes to deals involving fixed line players.
