The mobile service revenues increased 2.8 percent in 2014 globally, driven by data services, said ABI Research.

The revenue growth is despite decrease in mobile voice revenues across all regions.

ABI Research said the gap between 4G and 3G ARPU will widen over the period 2014 to 2020. The telecom analysis report said competition will drive down the ARPU for mobile operators, but the 4G ARPU will hold up better as a result of the higher data consumption stimulated by 4G users.

In 2015, 4G data traffic has started to dominate the total traffic consumption. The annual global 4G data usage in 2020 will exceed 224.7 Exabytes, 79 percent of the total data traffic.

Marina Lu, research analyst at ABI Research, said: “The richer content services including HD video, lossless music, and high-speed games are in great demand, boosting data service revenues.”

China Mobile holds the first position in terms of gross profit for 2014, followed by Verizon and AT&T respectively. The report said China Mobile has transformed from a voice-centric to a more data-centric operation.

In the United States, the gross profit for Verizon was 3 percent higher for 2014 than 2013, driven by the data service revenues and plans such as More Everything plans.

Baburajan K
[email protected]