Global telecommunications service provider revenues totaled $1.53 trillion in 2020, representing flat year-over-year growth, according to the International Data Corporation. Asia/Pacific service provider revenue was flat, while revenue grew in the Americas region and declined in Europe and the Middle East region.
IDC expects worldwide spending to increase by 0.7 percent in 2021 reaching a total of $1.54 trillion.
IDC had predicted in May 2020 that Covid would wind up having little impact on service provider revenues. In past recessions, even severe recessions, though telecom service provider revenues have dipped a bit, revenues tend to hold up better than for many other industries. Revenue also tends to bounce back quickly once a recovery begins.
Many will note the big jump in data usage during the pandemic. But usage and revenue do not correlate in a highly-linear fashion. In fact, many service providers essentially switched to “no extra charges” during the pandemic, which broke the possible connection between higher usage and higher revenue.
Segment trends varied. Consumer fixed network data services arguably got a boost as workers were forced to stay home and students were kept out of school.
Aggregate business fixed data demand likely was stable in the enterprise segment, but it seems almost inevitable that small business bankruptcies will reduce demand from the small business segment. Enterprise locations likely saw a fall in usage, but multi-year contracts likely preserved revenue generation.
Fixed voice demand has been falling for a couple of decades and it is unlikely Covid-related changes in demand will change the direction or magnitude of demand.
Mobile services spending declined slightly, partly because marketing suffered from retail store closing; in part because consumer lockdowns meant less need for out of home communications; and partly because roaming revenues fell. With workers and students at home, more data demand likely was shifted to Wi-Fi, and off the mobile networks.
The more important long-term observation is that global revenue growth now is quite flat.
No comments:
Post a Comment