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News - Jasper Hart
December 5, 2019
Global mobile penetration will rise rapidly in 2020, but broadband expansion will be slower while fixed lines will fall.
2020 will be a key year for 5G with global mobile subscriptions growing strongly to reach 7.3 billion according to a new report from The Economist.
The growth will be particularly rapid in Asia, the Middle East and Africa where mobile penetration will grow by 11 per cent.
The research also revealed that the number of fixed lines will continue to decline while fixed broadband subscriber lines will increase to nearly 1.1 billion in 2020.
However, there are also substantial risks to these forecasts, including the US-China trade war, Brexit and Huawei’s security concerns.
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s chief telecoms analyst Matt Kendall said: “The global telecoms sector can bank on yet more global growth during 2020, but the challenge will be to make that growth profitable.
“Most subscribers are unwilling to pay more for extra telecoms services or faster speeds.
“Operators will try to come up with compelling use cases, but many of them are likely to have cut costs during 2020 in order to improve their average revenue per user.”
