The mobile services revenue in Malaysia is poised to grow at a sluggish compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0.1% during 2019-2024, from US$5.1bn in 2019 to US$5.4bn in 2024, after registering a major drop in the market revenues in 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
GlobalData’s Malaysia Telecom Operators Country Intelligence Reporthighlights that the COVID-19 pandemic will have a significant impact on mobile service revenues in 2020. Aggregate mobile services revenues will witness a decline of 6.5% year-on-year in 2020, in line with decline in the mobile average revenue per user (ARPU), with operators offering discounts and free mobile data services to support users during the crisis.
Deepa Dhingra, telecom analyst at GlobalData, says, “The mobile data segment will see its revenues increase at a CAGR of 2.9% over the 2019-2024 period, driven by the steady growth in adoption of higher ARPU postpaid plans. On the other hand, revenues from mobile voice and mobile messaging segments will continue to decline at CAGR of 4.5% and 7.9%, respectively, over 2019-2024.”
“4G will remain the leading mobile technology through the forecast period 2019-2024, driven by continued investments on 4G network enhancements by operators such as Celcom, Digi Telecommunications and Maxis. With all the major mobile service providers preparing for 5G network, GlobalData expects 5G to be commercially launched in 2021.”
Digi led the mobile services market in 2019, closely followed by Maxis. GlobalData expects Maxis to become the mobile market leader in 2020 and will remain as market leader through 2024, driven by its strong focus on the postpaid segment. Moreover, Digi’s focus on network modernization to accelerate the 5G roll-out will help improve its market share in the mobile services market space in Malaysia.
