In EU15 countries, cellular revenues represent 1.5% of gross domestic product. In most countries, mobile revenues have been growing faster than GDP which demonstrates that the telecom sector has proven to be resilient to the general economic downturn.
Joss Gillet, senior analyst at Wireless Intelligence, commented: “In 2008, we expect to see a similar relatively healthy growth in mobile revenues.”
Non-voice revenues appear to be driving growth as voice revenues remain under strong pressure. As market penetration continues to rise, mobile operators are looking at increasing revenue share and focusing on customer retention.
In Western Europe, the top five operator groups (Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, Telefonica O2 and TIM) generated revenues of 106.6 billion Euros, or 69% of the total revenues for the region.
In markets such as Germany, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria, cellular revenues have decreased year on year, partly due to new European roaming regulations, domestic regulations (Bersani Decree in Italy), weakened ARPU, and decline in effective voice price per minute.
Gillet concluded: “Operators are now focusing on revenue stimulation and fighting churn through key competitive factors, such as price elasticity, network coverage, loyalty policy, quality of services, value added services and market segmentation which includes MVNO development.”