Telecoms Industry Insights - Top 10 Carrier Profiles in Asia-Pacific

Ample Opportunities for Telcos in the Consumer and Enterprise Segments to Grow Revenue

Asia-Pacific (APAC) market trends show significant changes impacting telecommunications service providers. The COVID-19 pandemic is adding pressure on telcos’ revenues and profit margins, particularly in the consumer segment. In response, they are launching innovative service offerings, including digital solutions for consumers and ICT solutions for enterprises. The pay-TV spending in developed markets will decline slightly, driven by high competition, increased availability of alternative streaming services, and live sports loss due to COVID-19. But there is still a significant increase in the consumer segment’s mobile data demand due to the rise in video consumption, the proliferation of mobile gaming, and increased usage of high-bandwidth applications. Consumers’ expectations are shifting as they are now looking for higher speeds to accommodate their increasing use of high-bandwidth applications. 5G adoption will be more prevalent in the enterprise segment, while the consumer segment adoption will be slower. As a result, telcos are developing 5G use cases within vertical markets to create new business models and revenue streams to overcome disruptions.

The consumer segment is highly saturated, recording low growth because of growing competition. So telcos are venturing into other markets, such as gaming, which are offering opportunities. The APAC games market revenue in 2019 was $71.7 billion and forecast to reach $93.1 billion by 2025. Over 50% of the revenue in 2020 came from mobile devices. Telcos are in a strong position to act as partners to gaming enterprises to deliver applications in the cloud, high-speed networks, and end-user devices.

Enterprises are embracing digital transformation, meaning every enterprise will have adjusted their business models to be more flexible and focus on customer experience. With subscriber base growth occurring more in enterprise services, the number of these services will grow to 83% by 2025. Telcos in APAC have the infrastructure and capabilities to provide services beyond connectivity to vertical markets.

The region’s top 10 telcos are Globe Telecom, PLDT, AIS, True Corporation, Telkomsel, Singtel, China Mobile, SK Telecom, SoftBank, and Optus. These carriers showcase the industry’s best practices that other telcos should consider emulating to achieve growth. In the consumer segment, the top telcos are collaborating with different eSports and mobile gaming segment participants to develop the gaming ecosystem. They are partnering and collaborating with in-industry and cross-industry players to offer advanced solutions and services that will improve end-user experience in the enterprise segment. Disruptive technologies’ proliferation has led telcos to begin exploring services beyond connectivity to offer to enterprises. This includes cloud and managed services.

This study covers the APAC market, focusing on developing countries such as China, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and the Philippines. Its target audience is professionals working in telecommunications and investors.