[Satellite TODAY 09-24-10] Despite economic downturn and expanded service regulations, the worldwide mobile roaming market is set to expand by 86 percent over the next five years, generating $67 billion in revenues for mobile operators, Informa Telecoms & Media announced in a report released Sept. 23.
    Revenues generated by mobile roaming charges will account for 6.3 percent of total mobile service revenues by the end of 2015, according to Informa. While the firm said it expects revenues to see a slowdown over the next two years as a result of the economic downturn and customer cost saving initiatives, a marked upturn is expected from 2012 onwards if markets recover.
    “Data roaming, new pricing models and technologies as well as regulation are just some of the forces that will transform the roaming market over the next five years. Bill shock remains a major issue for mobile roaming users in those markets where pricing regulation has not been implemented. Moreover, the legacy of bill shock is such that even in regulated markets there is a perception that mobile data roaming is expensive. Overcoming this sensitivity will take time but is critical,” Informa Senior Analyst Paul Merry said in the report.
    Informa also noted that the success of smartphones, app stores and other service launches is expected to drive a 246 percent increase in revenue for mobile operators over the next five-year period, with most of this growth coming from the enterprise sector.
    “Roaming is predominately used by enterprise segments that generate around 65 percent of total roaming revenue, and are highly price inelastic. In contrast, consumers are an underpenetrated roaming segment and are highly price elastic. Therefore enterprise customers will be more resilient to the economic downturn seeing a CAGR of 17 percent compared with just 5 percent for leisure users over the forecast period,” the report said.
     In breaking down growth by geographic regions, Informa said Western Europe will remain the largest roaming market, delivering about 41 percent of roaming revenues by 2015, followed by developing Asia-Pacific regions with about 18 percent and North America with 10 percent.
 

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