Mobile revenue growth slows to 3% in Q1

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Mobile service revenues grew by just 3% in Q1 2009, down from 8% a year earlier, according to Wireless Operator Performance Benchmarking, Q1 2009, from Strategy Analytics Nearly 40% of all mobile operators saw revenues fall in Q1 2009, compared to just 16% in the same situation in Q1 2008.

The research tracks the operational and financial performance of the over 175 mobile operators that collectively account for 80% of global subscribers. It found that vanishing revenue growth was not just a problem in mature, saturated markets: a quarter of the operators in emerging markets also saw service revenues fall in Q1.

Europe is seeing the greatest concentration of operators losing revenues at present. This used to just be an issue for the more saturated, Western half, but has now extended to Central and Eastern Europe, too.
 
In many other regions, operators recording revenue loss tend to be isolated cases where competitive pressure has hurt one operator more than others. However, in the Asia-Pacific, we are now seeing countries like Bangladesh, Indonesia and Thailand become tough environments for all players.”

Strategy Analytics