The COVID-19 pandemic had a limited impact on service providers’ Q1 2020 results. In fact, some telcos have seen growth in voice and data traffic as a result of increased demand for bandwidth and connectivity, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Rajesh Muru, Principal Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Key contributing factors that will influence the telecom wholesale market include an overall decline in international roaming revenues, which in some instances will be over 50% due to lockdown measures implemented across the globe, and an increase in connectivity revenues and voice traffic over 5%.”

The telecom wholesale market will experience further balancing in 2020 due to network connectivity demand. Telcos continue to expand Fibre to the X (FTTx) coverage for home and business markets due to demand. This is further influenced in countries where competition is less for new entrants to roll out fibre infrastructure. There has also been an expansion of backbone network infrastructure, particularly in regions in Africa and Asia.

Muru continues: “Service providers have seen a growth in international voice traffic through partnerships between global providers and local country entities. These partnerships create a win-win situation, allowing global players to expand footprint and local providers to connect with international players and grow their home customer base through portfolio differentiation, improved quality of service and allowing global access.”

The market will see a continuation of incumbents and wholesale providers to offset traditional declining voice revenues and compete/partner in a changing competitor playing field against OTT providers. Providers will differentiate and deliver a portfolio of services capitalizing on its strong network capabilities and footprint. Potential high growth solution offerings include Anti-Fraud, Mobile Roaming, development of 5G, Internet of Things, Business Analytics, Cloud Comms, and Machine to Machine.

Muru concludes: “GlobalData continues to see success and overall extension of provider wholesale portfolio, although expansion in 5G has slowed down due to COVID-19.”