Mobile market to slow

Growth in the local mobile phone market is set to decline according to researchers Market Clarity.

The company’s Australian Mobile Voice and Data Services Market report has found that the growing parity of mobiles to population will be largely to blame for any slowdown.

The study found that the mobile market, which has grown by 120.6 percent since 2000, will only grow a further 17.1 percent from 2005 to 2010.

Market Clarity said that the figures would have a large impact on the 3G sector for the mobile market which has to compete with established 2G technologies in an already-saturated consumer market.

To compound this, 3G services also had to compete with the growing shift toward low-value pre-paid offerings.

Pre-paid now made up nearly half of all mobile phones in operation and were set to grow faster than the overall market at 19.2 percent between 2005 and 2010.

Market Clarity CEO Shara Evans said in a statement that with the very low potential for future growth in services, carriers will have to look to added value to grow their mobile revenues.

“3G services show by far the highest average revenue per user in the mobile market,” she said. “But so far, with about 750,000 3G services in operation at December 2005, the 3G space has yet to experience serious competition.”

Currently, 3G services enjoy average revenue per user of over $80 per month, Evans said, but in a more competitive market this was likely to decline towards the industry-wide average of just over $57 per month.

“In the years 2000-2005, the Australian mobile services industry underwent a huge boom, with services, revenues and call minutes all growing strongly,” she said. “The challenge for the coming years is to find new services to drive revenue growth in the face of a clear consumer trend towards commodity mobiles.”

market claritytelco/isp