Back to the blog.

Featured Image Blog Feature

May 6, 2021

Print/Save as PDF

25 Stats to Know About the Telecommunications Market in 2021

Blog  |  Mobile Brands

In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic forced people and businesses to adapt to unprecedented circumstances. In so doing, it also advanced the cause of a variety of digital and telecommunications trends — from remote work to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to teleconferencing and more. So, with the telecom industry on track for big things in the years to come, we wanted to focus on 25 telecom stats to know for 2021 and beyond.

To jump to a particular section, click the links below:

Telecommunications Market Statistics

  1. In 2021, spend in the telecommunication services industry is expected to amount to 1.45 trillion U.S. dollars, an increase of nearly 5% from 2020. (Statista)
  2. By 2022, spend is expected to grow even further, reaching 1.505 trillion U.S. dollars. (Statista)
  3. The total revenue opportunity for mobile operators created by Value-Added Services (VAS) is expected to reach 120 billion U.S. dollars by 2024, with Application-to-Person (A2P) Messaging and Machine to Machine (M2M) Connectivity leading the way. Here’s the total revenue opportunity for operators, split by VAS:

    Telecommunications Market stats in 2021 Blog - Juniper new opportunities
    (Juniper Research)

 

Mobile Network Operator (MNO) Statistics

  1. Between 2019 and 2024, the estimated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for new revenue opportunities in the MNO sector will be 33%. (Juniper Research)
  2. Over the next five years, core billed revenues in the MNO sector will fall by 40 million U.S. dollars. (Juniper Research)
  3. From 2019 to 2024, the total data traffic generated by mobile handsets is expected to rise from just below 400,000 PB to just over 1.3 million PB. (Juniper Research)
  4. Vodafone, Verizon, and AT&T stand out as the most innovative Operators in the MNO space. (Juniper Research)

 

Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) Statistics

  1. In 2020, the MVNO market was valued at 61.9 billion U.S. dollars. (Mordor Intelligence)
  2. By 2026, the MVNO space is expected to be valued at 91.63 billion U.S. dollars, with growth coming largely from new technologies like eSIM, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and edge computing. (Mordor Intelligence)
  3. The MVNO market is also expected to register a CAGR of 6.75% between 2021 and 2026. (Mordor Intelligence)
  4. Other estimates place MVNO CAGR at 6.5% between 2020 and 2030. These estimates also anticipate the MVNO market to grow from 62.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2019 to 127.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2030. (Globe News Wire)
  5. While MVNOs are well-established in developed markets, they’re becoming increasingly important in developing markets. Indeed, Asia Pacific is both the largest and fastest growing MVNO market in the world, due in no small part to growth in the region’s developing countries. (Mordor Intelligence)
  6. In recent years, competition in the MVNO market has shifted from pricing to value-added services and product differentiation. This is due to the success of MNOs in developing low-cost cellular services. (Mordor Intelligence)
  7. Starting an MVNO and all the information you need. (MVNO-Index)
  8. Between 2015 and 2019, the number of unique mobile subscribers increased from 4.66 billion to 5.59 billion. (GSMA)
  9. There will be 5.8 billion unique mobile connection subscribers worldwide by the end of 2025. (GSMA)
  10. Prior to the pandemic, it was estimated that 72% of the global population would be subscribed to a mobile service by 2020. (GSMA)
  11. The increased availability of cloud services, M2M transactions, and mobile money are expected to further augment demand for MVNOs. (Mordor Intelligence)
  12. Government initiatives, like the European Union’s Digital Single Market (DSM), are also expected to boost the growth of the MVNO market. Indeed, by eliminating copyright issues and geo-blocking problems, DSM is expected to deliver improved network service access. (Mordor Intelligence)
  13. Adapting to COVID-19, businesses all over the globe have allowed employees to work from home (WFH). Vodafone UK, for instance, has witnessed a 50% increase in internet traffic. Likewise, to capitalize on this opportunity, Orange España has begun offering customers access to free data bundles. (Mordor Intelligence)
  14. It was estimated that, by the end of 2020, there would be 20.4 billion connected devices worldwide. (Mordor Intelligence)
  15.  According to some reports, there will be nearly 75 billion connected devices by 2025. (IDC)
  16. However, some reports claim there could be as many as 82 billion connected devices by 2025. (Mordor Intelligence)
  17. It was estimated that there would be 1 billion eSIM-enabled devices worldwide by the end of 2020. (G+D Mobile Security)
  18. However, the number of eSIM devices is expected to reach nearly 2 billion by 2025. (G+D Mobile Security)
  19. In 2019, global smartphone penetration was 65%. It is expected that global smartphone penetration will climb to 80% by the end of 2025. (GSMA)

 

About Pareteum

Pareteum is an experienced provider of Communications Platform as a Service solutions. We empower enterprises, communications service providers, internet service providers, mobile operators, full MVNOs, light MVNOs, early-stage innovators, developers, IoT (Internet of Things), and telecommunications infrastructure providers with the freedom and control to create, deliver, and scale innovative communications experiences.

The Pareteum platform connects people and devices around the world using the secure, ubiquitous, and highly scalable solution to deliver data, voice, video, SMS/text messaging, media, and content enablement.

For more information on Pareteum Experience Cloud, set up a meeting!