The total fixed communications services revenue in Australia is expected to increase at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.3 percent from US$9.5 billion in 2019 to US$10.1 billion in 2024, according to GlobalData.
Fixed communications service revenues will decline in 2020 due to the impact of Covid-19 on the overall ARPU. Fixed voice ARPU will continue its downward spiral and fall from US$27.64 in 2019 to US$25.53 in 2020, Deepa Dhingra, telecom analyst at GlobalData, said in the report.
The average fixed broadband ARPU on the other hand will decline from US$49.24 in 2019 to US$48.75 in 2020 due to the free broadband services offered by operators such as Optus amid the Covid-19 lockdown.
Recovery in ARPU levels from 2021 along with increasing fiber-to-the-home/business (FTTH/B) subscriptions on the back of the national broadband network (NBN) project will support the revenue growth in the fixed broadband segment through 2024. Fixed broadband revenues for Australia are set to increase at a 5.9 percent CAGR during 2019-2024.
Fixed voice service revenue in Australia will decline at a CAGR of 5.7 percent over 2019-2024, due to falling circuit-switched subscriptions and drop in fixed voice ARPU levels.
Telstra will lead the fixed voice segment over 2019-2024, driven by its strong foothold in the voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) segment.
Telstra’s leadership in the fixed-broadband segment will be essentially due to its strong fibre network infrastructure and its multi-play service plans.