China mobile services revenue to reach $142.8 billion in 2025, driven by 5G expansion: GlobalData

China’s mobile services revenue is expected to increase from $119.1 billion in 2020 to $142.8 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 3.7%, driven by 5G infrastructure, increase in mobile data consumption and rising ARPU levels, as per data analytics firm GlobalData.

While the mobile data service revenue segment will grow robustly at a CAGR of 8.5% in 2022-25, driven by higher ARPU 5G plans, the mobile voice revenue will decline steadily, and mobile messaging revenue will decline sharply, it added.

The mobile data services segment represents the largest revenue contributor to the overall mobile services market in China.

Mobile data ARPU will grow from $3.91 per month in 2020 to $5.52 per month in 2025, as more operators launch higher ARPU 5G plan offerings, the firm said.

“5G subscriptions in China are expected to witness significant growth from 2020 to 2025 (CAGR of 40.6%) and will outdo 4G in the total mobile subscription share in 2023, supported by the commercial launch of 5G by all the three state-backed telecom operators, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom,” said Antariksh Raut, Senior Analyst of Telecoms Market Data and Intelligence at GlobalData.

“As one of the countries with largest 5G infrastructure already in place, China has turned the COVID-19 crisis into a big opportunity and the future outlook looks positive for the country’s telecom market,” Raut added.

M2M/IoT subscriptions are forecasted to grow from 175.6 million to 253.9 million, at a CAGR of 7.7% during the forecast period, GlobalData concluded.

As per a report by Chinese state-run publication China Daily, Chinese telecoms operators built more than 600,000 base stations in 2020, in addition to about 100,000 base stations built-in 2019.

The country’s telcos are likely to build more than 100,000 new 5G base stations next year, bringing the total number of 5G base stations in China to more than 1.7 million by 2021-end, the report added.