Data revenue for telcos in the Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) and Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow to 15% of overall revenue in the next year, with SA possibly exceeding this number.
This is one of the key findings of the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Wireless Industry Survey.
Johan van Huyssteen, PWC partner and InfoComs leader for Southern Africa, says even though data revenue only makes up about 10% of telcos` revenue stream, "companies view it as an important driver of overall revenue and average revenue per user (ARPU) increases".
Van Huyssteen says SMS, phone and Blackberry-based e-mail and Web applications are the most popular drivers of the data revenue stream.
The African continent is seeing "unprecedented expansion, and subscriber growth and technology is first-class," he adds.
However, throughout the region, telcos are using different standards for measuring inactive customers, with some including them in the churn numbers and other not.
Costs per gross addition also "varied significantly" throughout the region, "with most operators including sales commission and handset costs, and some even incorporating retail store overhead and marketing expenses. An overall trend noted is that customer retention costs are increasing."
One of the most significant changes in the wireless environment over the last three years has been the increased level of regulation, which in turn has led to an increase in compliance costs, Van Huyssteen adds.
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