The world telecom services market is estimated at 1,365 billion USD in 2008 ? a 4.2% increase over the year before ? and is expected to be worth over 1,416 billion USD in 2009. With a total turnover estimated at 742.2 billion USD in 2008, mobile services account for 54% of the telecom services market and singlehandedly deliver all of the sector?s growth. But the annual growth rate has dropped from more than 12% in 2007 to 8% in 2008. The mobile customer base worldwide grew by another 17% in 2008, but is offset by a steady decline in average revenue per user.
The revenue generated by data services ? whose growth is being spurred chiefly by broadband access ? rose by 20 billion USD in 2008, while fixed telephony revenue dropped by as much, even if the impact on the base is still limited. The number of broadband connections grew by close to 20% to 415 million at the end of 2008.
This are some of the conclusions drawn from the Mobile report, which is to be presented by ENTER and IDATE at the Mobile World Congress for the fourth year running. The purpose of the report is to analyse the situation of the mobile telephone market in the world and the main challenges facing the sector.
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