Wholesale telecoms market size will be $142 bn in 2019: Ovum

The global wholesale telecoms market will be worth $142 billion in 2019.

It will account for 6.6 percent of total telecoms service provider revenues against 5.5 percent in 2012, said Ovum.

Demand in the Asia-Pacific region will push its share of global total wholesale revenues to 26 percent in 2019 against 17 percent in 2012. Ovum noted that Asia-Pacific region is experiencing the steepest rise due to retail competition in many countries and escalating international traffic.

The wholesale offers are growing in Malaysia and South Korea, and wholesale revenues will increase in China due to the recent licensing of 19 mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs). These providers would not be able to operate without the wholesale services provided by China’s three dominant mobile network operators.

“The rate of retail service innovation, the growth of voice and data traffic volumes, and the increasing complexity of retail services all depend on an efficient and effective wholesale market because few retail service providers can do everything themselves,” said David James, practice leader for Ovum’s wholesale research channel and author of the report.

Ovum said wholesale revenues will be concentrated among a small number of large players.

In 2012 the five largest wholesalers earned more than a third of total global wholesale revenues, and the top 10 earned more than half of the total.

Telecoms service providers headquartered in North America and Europe dominated the list of the top 20 wholesalers in 2012, with only three based in Asia-Pacific, one in the Middle East and Africa region, and none from South and Central America.

At least one Chinese carrier will be among the top 20 wholesalers by revenues in 2019, though North America and Europe will continue to dominate the list.