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Ovum: 2009 telcos worst year for a decade
Wed, 22nd Sep 2010
FYI, this story is more than a year old

Telecoms analyst Ovum believes global telecoms revenue will bounce back in 2010 due to continued growth in the mobile sector.

Figures released by Global Telecoms Analyser show that telecoms service provider revenues only grew by 2.2% in 2009, the worst growth in a decade. The firm says this was down to the industry finally feeling the pinch of the global economic downturn.

The growth in the mobile sector is now said to be sufficient enough to overcome the steady decline in fixed line services.

“Globally, mobile is keeping telecoms buzzing,” John Lively, Chief Forecaster at Ovum, says. “In 2010, China and India alone will add 329 million new mobile phone connections, equivalent to more than the combined total population of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK.”

The report forecasts that fixed line services will continue to decline although fiber connections for broadband services will increasingly be important for telcos.

“Overall, the number of fixed lines worldwide will fall from one billion in 2010, to 871 million by 2014. Fixed line services revenues will also fall from around $350 billion to $283 billion, for the same period,” the company says.