Tefficient’s 39th public analysis of mobile data development and drivers compares 39 countries worldwide, where M2M/IoT can be excluded from the total bases. Mobile data usage grew in 38 of them – with Bahrain as the only exception.
If you’d rather see the analysis including M2M, go here.
When usage grows, the growth rates are slowing. Portugal leads with a growth rate of 47%, contrasting with Taiwan‘s modest 8% growth. Bahrain experienced a decline of 6% in data usage.
Data-only subscriptions continue to dominate average mobile data usage, although their market share remains limited. Latvia‘s average data-only subscription consumed 138 GB per month in 2022 while Austria recorded 115 GB in the first half of 2023. In the FWA-only category, Australia had a remarkable 334 GB per month in 1H 2023.
While data-only drives traffic, the same can’t be said for 5G
Reporting is imperfect, but there are only three countries with disproportionately high 5G traffic in relation to their 5G bases: South Korea, Austria and Saudi Arabia. We explain what these countries do and what other countries are missing.
Overall, mobile data revenue once again reached its lowest level, although the erosion in revenue per gigabyte slowed compared to our previous analyses. Portugal experienced the fastest erosion rate at 30%. As the sole country, Turkey witnessed a much-needed increase.
73% of markets experienced an increase in ARPU following onto data usage growth
Adding to the positive outcomes, 73% of markets experienced an increase in ARPU following onto data usage growth. However, when accounting for overall inflation, the ARPU growth is still almost always slower than inflation. Things improved, though.
Download the analysis: Data-only drives traffic. The same can’t be said for 5G.
Updated 20 December 2023 with Q2 2023 data for Croatia and May 2023 5G data for the UK
Updated 22 December 2023 with a correction of the historical full year data for Australia