Growth in mobile data consumption and expansion of fixed broadband network coverage will drive the total telecom service revenue in Hong Kong to US$5.7bn by the end of 2024, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

According to GlobalData’s Asia-Pacific Mobile Broadband Forecast Pack, the mobile data service revenue will account for major share in the total telecom service revenue during the forecast period in Hong Kong. The key drivers for this growth are the growing demand for mobile data consumption and machine to machine (M2M) subscriptions.

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According to GlobalData, mobile voice revenues are set to decline from 2019 to 2020 due to declining voice average revenue by user (ARPU). However, increase in the usage of mobile data services will push the mobile data ARPU to reach US$10.07/month by 2024.

Kantipudi Pradeepthi, Research Analyst of Telecoms Market Data & Intelligence at GlobalData, says: “There will be a fall in Pay-TV revenue from 2019 to 2024, due to continuous decrease in cable TV and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) susbcriptions.”

GlobalData forecasts fixed broadband to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0.8% during the forecast period, owing to rising investments for the expansion of fiber optic networks and development of broadband coverage to under-resourced areas.

Fiber-to-the-home/business (FTTH/B) is expected to hold majority of the total fixed broadband subscription share for the forecast period in the fixed communication segement. However, the total fixed voice telephony lines will fall by 12% due to decline in circuit-switched subscriptions.

Kantipudi concludes: “Over-the-top (OTT) services such as Netflix has caused major disruption in the Pay-TV subscriptions in Hong Kong. In addition, OTT services are available at lesser price than the domestic Pay-TV services as Hong Kong has extensive Wi-Fi public coverage. This resulted in the migration of TV audiences to online streaming services and subsequent decline of Pay-TV service revenue.”