In The latest research report by Gartner Inc. indicates that the number of mobile connections in all parts of the world will reach the figure of 5.6 billion in 2011. This is up 11 percent from 5 billion connections in 2010. There will be a corresponding rise in revenues for the operators. Mobile data services revenue is expected to total $314.7 billion in 2011, a 22.5 percent increase from 2010 revenue of $257 billion.
Jessica Ekholm, principal research analyst at Gartner said, Mobile data traffic will increase significantly as more people will have access to mobile data networks, there is a migration toward smartphones and an increase in sales of media tablets. Mobile data volumes will continue to grow as mobile data networks become faster and more ubiquitous, while at the same time the number of data users and data usage per user is expected to grow.
The growth in mobile connectivity will continue steadily through year 2015, when mobile connections are forecast to reach 7.4 billion, which is more than the total number of human beings on the planet. The mobile data revenue will reach $552 billion during the same period. Ms. Ekholm said, Data revenue will continue to grow but at a much slower rate. This is causing a decoupling between revenue and data traffic, and it is also creating an increase in network costs for carriers as they try to sustain growing data traffic.
In coming up with this forecast, Gartner Inc. has taken into account four major mobile data traffic drivers. These are: growth in the number of mobile connections, increasing availability of higher-speed data-centric mobile networks, smartphones, and data-consuming content and applications. Growth in the number of mobile connections will lead to higher demands on the data networks as more people access the networks to use mobile data and to send text messages.
According to communications service providers (CSPs) will increasingly start moving toward offering more flexible and more personalized data plans, which should help capture a larger mobile data user base. CSPs have also upgraded their networks by offering faster download and upload speeds to consumers, which have helped improve the general perception of data quality and thus led to increased data uptake.
Sylvain Fabre, research director at Gartner, said, What carriers currently need are innovative ways to increase data revenue while finding smart solutions to manage a growing demand in data. Ultimately, it will be the consumer who chooses the content he or she wants to use, and carriers need to ensure that the quality of experience is good. A substandard user experience may lead to higher churn.
Gartner also has some advise to offer to the service providers for the pricing plans that they offer to their users. Ms. Ekholm said, Carriers should focus on increasing the level of clarity and the transparency of their mobile data contracts in order to make the majority of customers feel more at ease in using data services. This is particularly important when it comes to data roaming. Offering clients various ways of being able to track and monitor their data usage would help carriers receive a larger amount of revenue from more profitable lower-usage, medium-pay users.
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