Oz Mobile Users On Move As 52PC Seek 4G Services
Some 52 percent of mobile services in Australia are now on 4G networks, with penetration expected to reach 85 percent by 2020, according to a new report by the Telsyte market research service.
With more than half of all smartphone services using 4G services, there will already be more competition for delivering services to consumers that can make use of faster download speeds and larger download allowances such as streaming music, video and games, Telsyte says.
The ability of networks to tap into growing mobile trends such as Pokémon Go and live streaming will help grow data utilisation by consumers. In 2015, the average growth of data allowances was 76pc; however data usage only grew by 45pc, according to Telsyte.
(In case you were wondering, Telsyte estimates that 2 million Australian smartphone users had downloaded Pokémon Go by the end of July.)
Some other findings by the Telsyte survey include:
BYO mobile plans will further shake up Australia’s mobile services market, resulting in fewer long term subscriptions for major operators. In particular, Telsyte sees Telstra’s recent network outages – combined with more competitive 4G plans available in the market – will encourage mobile handset service subscribers to shop around.
M2M (machine-to-machine) and secondary devices will be the main drivers for future market growth towards 2020, while the increase of handset SIO (services in operation) will be limited to net population growth.
Telsyte estimates Telstra will maintain a strong lead in the M2M market, but other service providers are likely to attack Telstra’s handset market share aggressively. According to Telsyte analyst Alvin Lee, M2M services still account for less than 5pc of overall mobile services revenue.