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Australia’s mobile services market is projected to grow by 15.4 per cent to reach US$14.9 billion in revenue by 2025, according to GlobalData report.
The analyst firm claimed the market will bounce back after last year’s coronavirus-induced slump, with mobile voice services growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.7 per cent.
Meanwhile, mobile data service revenue is expected to grow at a CAGR of 16.7 per cent over the same period, driven by growth in the higher average revenue per user (ARPU)-5G subscriptions.
According to GlobalData, the industry’s growth is also being driven by the Federal Government’s auction of high band 5G spectrum (in the 26 GHz band) in the first half of 2021 for faster, high-capacity 5G services.
This was coupled with the allocation of low-band 5G spectrum (in the 850/900 MHz band) in the second half of the year, which will give broader geographic coverage of 5G services.
“5G subscriptions’ share in Australia is expected to grow from 5..7 per cent in 2020 to 34.2 per cent in 2025 supported by 5G network expansions by all the three major operators, Telstra, Optus and Vodafone Australia,” said Aasif Iqbal, telecoms analyst at GlobalData.
According to Iqbal, Telstra led the mobile services market in Australia in terms of mobile subscriptions in 2020, followed by Optus.
However, in order to drive revenue growth, Telstra will need to focus on internet of things (IoT) services and 5G network expansion if its plans to switch off 3G in favour of 5G by June 2024 go ahead.
The report follows GlobalData’s analysis of Australia’s fixed-line market, whereby it forecasted four years of “sluggish” growth.
In the report, it predicted total fixed communications services revenue in Australia is expected to increase at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of only 0.7 per cent, from US$9.9 billion in 2020 to US$10.2 billion in 2025.
