Worldwide spending on Telecom and Pay TV services will achieve growth of 1.4 percent in 2024 to reach $1,530 billion, IDC report said.
The growth in spending on Telecom Services and Pay TV Services was 2.1 percent reaching $1,509 billion in 2023, IDC’s Worldwide Semiannual Telecom Services Tracker said.
In 2023, telecom operators have generated sales of $574 billion (up 0.5 percent) from Americas, $481 billion (up 3 percent) from Asia Pacific, and $454 billion (up 3.3 percent) from the EMEA.
The recent Gartner report said spending on Communications Services will be $1,551.288 billion with an increase of 4.3 percent in 2024. This compares with 3.3 percent growth in spending on Communications Services at $1,487.161 billion in 2023.
IDC says the mobile segment is the largest, driven by the growth in mobile data usage and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) applications. This growth offsets declines in spending on mobile voice and messaging services.
The fixed data services segment continues to grow due to the increasing demand for higher-bandwidth services. Spending on fixed voice services is projected to drop over the forecast period as the decline in traditional voice revenues is not compensated for by the increase in IP voice.
Despite a slight decline in the Pay TV market due to the rising popularity of Video on Demand (VoD) and Over-The-Top (OTT) services, these offerings will remain an essential part of telecom providers’ multiplay services.
“With the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics, the telecom operators have obtained a new powerful ally that should help them modernize their business operations and improve efficiencies,” said Kresimir Alic, research director, Worldwide Telecom Services at IDC.
IDC has identified a number of use cases including customer service chatbots, virtual assistants, and field technicians, as well as the usage of AI for network modernization and predictive maintenance, network traffic management, personalized marketing, fraud detection and prevention, churn predictions, and revenue assurance.
Meanwhile, MTN Consulting said capital expenditure of telecom operators will be $309 billion in 2024 against $315 billion in 2023.
