Mobile operator service revenues in 2008 were up 13 per cent on the previous year hitting US$624 billion. Infonetics Research forecasts that this number will reach US$877 billion in 2010, driven largely by mobile broadband service-derived revenues which are predicted to more than double in the period to 2013.
Voice will continue to be a major factor with voice service revenues expected to grow slowly through 2013, driven largely by continuing subscriber growth in developing markets and the shift from fixed to mobile voice in developed countries. The good news for mobile operators currently planning to expend considerable capital on upgrading to LTE is that service revenues from this source will grow rapidly reaching US$41.7 billion in 2013. In the same time frame W-CDMA/HSPA service revenues will be almost five times that of CDMA 1xEV-DO, as the majority of worldwide mobile subscribers are on GSM networks.
The number of mobile broadband subscribers is forecast by Infonetics to hit one billion by 2013.
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