How long will it take for global telecom revenue to return to 2019 pre-pandemic levels?
Perhaps the good news is that, right now, based on development of vaccines, it seems as though the second quarter of 2021 might see an end to most economy-affecting prohibitions and impediments to normal levels of commerce.
The bad news?
If so, we might not see a return to early 2019 levels of revenue until perhaps 2023, according to Analysys Mason. A worst-case scenario delays recovery to 2019 levels until some time after 2024.
Note that these forecasts were made in May 2020, and might well change. Here is Analysys Mason’s May 2020 forecast, with a range of cases from mild to severe impact. Also note that the "moderate" scenario tracks the "mild" scenario closely. Some might argue that means the "moderate" recovery case is almost the same as the "best case" forecast.
In the moderate case, we return to 2019 revenue levels by perhaps 2023. The "worst case" is almost impossible to anticipate, in terms of time of recovery.
The bright spots are residential broadband (assuming strength in internet access but weakness in linear video and voice), business unified communications and internet of things.
Many seemingly believe that all the past year’s emphasis on remote work and remote learning “must” be good for connectivity providers, and to be sure, some evidence can be cited, such as an increase in broadband subscription rates in the United States, in the third quarter of 2020, for example. Net additions in the first quarter were the highest since 2015, while in the second quarter, net additions were about triple the rate for the same quarter of 2019.
The story overall is not that bright, as most service providers, in most markets (perhaps nearly every market) have seen a dip in revenues in 2020. Mobile operators, for example, have seen declining revenues for roaming, since people were not traveling as much as usual. With businesses operating in restricted mode, if at all, usage was down there as well. Many small businesses have gone bankrupt, so customer additions were negative in that sense.
At the same time, costs increased as firms scrambled to support a sudden surge of at-home work patterns. In the first quarter of 2020,revenue declined about 2.2 percent globally, according to ResearchandMarkets. Some service providers saw revenue “growth rate” declines as high as 12 percent in the first quarter alone, including telcos in the U.S. market.
Profits might diverge from the revenue declines in some cases, as some firms take steps to restructure. But top-line growth will tend to suffer at most firms. In India, for example, fixed network subscribers dipped nearly seven percent, year over year, in September, while mobile accounts shrunk by about two percent.
We might well be prepared for surprises, though. In past recessions, telecom revenue has rebounded relatively quickly, and revenue dips were shallow. But the pandemic has not been a "typical" recession, leaving open the possibility that recovery could be on a different pattern.
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