Tefficient’s 36th public analysis of the development and drivers of mobile data compares the trends of 45 countries globally.
In our previous analyses, we saw that the pandemic led to an increase in the mobile data usage. The demand for more mobile data has since slowed. Czechia experienced the fastest growth in mobile data usage in 2022: 56%. On the other end of the spectrum, Iceland witnessed a decrease in usage. Austria, China, Malaysia and Norway had some increase, but it was below 9%.
Tefficient conducted a series of one-to-one interviews with operator executives from various global markets to gain insights into their perspectives on mobile data monetisation and service bundling models, with a focus on current and future trends.
The interviews delved into topics such as the sufficiency of current bucket and unlimited tiered mobile data propositions, the pricing of 5G, the success of speed tiering, and how content bundling can help operators. Experiences from hard bundling, soft bundling (with choice), add-on sales and content aggregation were discussed. Additionally, the interviews explored how operators can design their propositions in a QoE and slicing future where tiering is not limited to volume, speed, and content.
Tefficient’s 35th public analysis of the development and drivers of mobile data compares the trends of 46 countries from around the world. In our previous reports, we observed that the pandemic drove an increase in mobile data usage. However, during the second half of 2021 and into 2022, the demand for more mobile data slowed.
Greece experienced the fastest growth in mobile data usage, with a 45% increase. On the other end of the spectrum, Qatar, Peru, Malaysia, and Austria saw unusually slow growth rates of just 1-3%.
Tefficient’s 34th public analysis on the development and drivers of mobile data ranks 104 operators based on average data usage per SIM, total data traffic and revenue per gigabyte in the full year of 2021 and in the first half of 2022.
In 2021 – a year marked by COVID – the data usage per SIM grew for 97% of operators. The average traffic growth was 32%. A majority of operators, 62%, could turn data usage growth into ARPU growth.
62% of operators could turn data usage growth into ARPU growth
Tefficient’s 33rd public analysis of the development and drivers of mobile data compares 46 countries from all regions of the world.
In our previous reports for 2020 and 1H 2021 we could see that the pandemic drove mobile data usage – contrary to the belief that all that time we spent at home would offload mobile data traffic to Wi-Fi and fixed broadband.
But the usage backlash is here: During the second half of 2021 the demand for more mobile data slowed. If comparing countries where usage is available for both the first and the second half of the year, most experienced decelerating growth. There were even five countries with a decline in absolute usage: Australia, Iceland, Qatar, Austria and Bahrain.
During the last decade, fixed-mobile convergence – FMC for short – has come to dominate how connectivity and entertainment are sold to households in European markets like Spain, France, Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands.
In Spain, around three quarters of the households currently subscribe to an FMC plan covering at least fixed broadband and one or multiple mobile subscriptions. Often TV or other entertainment services are included too.
Initially FMC was sold with massive discounts and the base grew quickly as it was a no-brainer not to buy everything from the same operator. Churn levels were improved dramatically too when a churn decision no longer just affected one service for one household member, but many different services consumed by many different people. [Some find it easier to negotiate with an operator than with members of the family].
In later years, FMC ARPU increased much, driven by more content (and more expensive content such as football) in the mix. Eventually, the operator thirst for higher and higher ARPU might have been the start of a negative base trend for FMC. In the graph below, we show the FMC net adds for Movistar (Telefónica Spain) since the launch of its Fusión FMC product.
Both analyses are quite comprehensive and compare Norway to the three fellow Nordic countries Denmark, Sweden and Finland. It means that they are highly interesting not just for the industry and policy makers in Norway, but in all four countries.
Sample graph from the mobile reportSample graph from the fixed broadband report
Since the Ministry has made both analyses available for public download, you can access them directly and for free from here:
Gaming is a multi-billion dollar business – but operators have not really aimed to monetise it. Until now. Cloud gaming relies on a network’s ability to deliver a stable throughput and a low and stable latency. Gaming devices no longer need to have muscles; the rendering happens in powerful cloud servers. With cloud gaming, operators have the possibility to be relevant for gamers; operators can use network features to control and improve the gaming experience. Perhaps operators can even sell cloud gaming with differentiated experience tiers?
Tefficient’s 32nd public analysis of the development and drivers of mobile data compares 46 countries – now with Brazil added – from all regions of the world.
In our previous, full year 2020, report we could see that the pandemic drove mobile data usage – contrary to the belief that all that time we spent at home would offload mobile data traffic to Wi-Fi and fixed broadband.
Although the pandemic was still very much present in our daily life, the relaxation of restrictions in the first half of 2021 led to a more normal growth in mobile data usage.
Ericsson ConsumerLab published its latest report today.
The 5G Pacesetters report is the public outcome of a very ambitious project to design and analyse an index that measures both the 5G market performance and the consumer perception of 73 operators across 22 markets globally. Each 5G operator was analysed based on 105 criteria across 16 categories – from customer satisfaction to 5G offering, rollout and marketing efforts. It’s the first time a 5G index takes consumer satisfaction and consumers’ 5G leadership expectation into account.
