Global Mobile ARPU Now Depends on Broadband and Data Services

Mobile end-user average revenue per user dropped between six percent to nine percent globally, in the third quarter of 2009, says ABI Research.

In the U.S. market, overall ARPU decreased by $0.45. Average voice ARPU declined by $0.98 while the average data ARPU grew by $0.53, according to mobile analyst Chetan Sharma.

By the end of 2009, average voice ARPU was less than $10 a month while data ARPU was about $15 a month. But average blended ARPU has been flat at around $49.50 since 2003.

ABI Research estimates that ARPU decline is likely to flatten out in developed markets in Europe and North America as mobile data revenue increasingly replaces falling voice revenue, as it has in the United States.

Globally, the growth in minutes of use has also peaked, and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of only 1.4 percent between 2009 and 2015, with much of this growth driven by developing markets in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Minutes of use in the U.S.market are growing at about a three percent rate, says CTIA: The Wireless Association.

Whether in the U.S. market or elsewhere, broadband access and data services are the clear way forward for mobile ARPU, gross revenue and profit margin.