tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 1

Industry analysis #2 2017

Mobile data – full year 2016 and Q1 2017

The luxury of the commodity gigabyte

Revenue per gigabyte can vary between 1 and 48 EUR

This is tefficient’s 16th public analysis on the development and drivers of mobile data.

It is an add-on to our just-published analysis “More for more” isn’t happening which compares

33 countries.

In this analysis we compare operators. We have ranked 111 of them based on:

Average data usage per customer

Total data traffic

Revenue per gigabyte

If you think gigabytes are becoming a commodity, you are just partly right. End-users love

what they can do with data – but even if they are willing to pay for it there are limits to their

loyalty.

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 2

Data usage spans from 0.1 to 10.9 GB per SIM per month

Figure 1 shows the average mobile data usage for 111 reporting or reported1 mobile operators globally. Both

the usage for the full year of 2016 and – if available – the usage for the first quarter of 2017 are displayed.

Figure 1. Average data usage per SIM per month – all operators

It’s of course near to impossible to read Figure 1 and we will therefore break it down into three regions, but

let’s first use Figure 1 to identify the global data usage leaders.

Gold 3 Austria with 10.9 GB per SIM and month in 2016

Through a number of home broadband plans with unlimited data volume – where price is based on

throughput (up to 10, 30, 50 or 150 Mbit/s download) – 3 Austria has managed to build a large base

of data-only subscriptions – in most cases replacing slow fixed broadband lines. More than one third

of 3’s subscriptions were data-only in December 2016. In our country report, we show just how important

1 By regulators

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*) Calculated as country total minus all other (reporting) operators**) Data traffic not reported as such, but calculated based on reported usage

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 3

data-only is for the overall data usage of a country. 3’s competitors have followed, today having similar

propositions, but 3 still carried a whopping 64% of the Austrian mobile data traffic in 2016. 3 is not offering

unlimited data on smartphone plans, but the buckets are large – and have been large for a long time.

Silver DNA Finland with 10.7 GB per SIM and month in 2016 and 14.3 GB in Q1 2017

The former number 1 has to settle with the silver medal in 2016. But with its quick growth of data

usage in the beginning of 2017, DNA could perhaps again challenge 3 Austria for the gold? Since 3

Austria is just reporting every six months, we will have to wait and see. Most of DNA’s subscriptions

– regular ones as well as data-only subscriptions – have unlimited data volume where the price depends

on the chosen speed tier. 54% of the Finnish SIM cards had unlimited data volume in December 2016, but

we suspect that DNA is over-indexed in unlimited.

Bronze Elisa Finland with 9.2 GB per SIM and month in 2016 and 11.8 GB in Q1 2017

Elisa is synonymous with unlimited data and never stops reminding Finns about it in its

marketing – even though DNA too has had it for a long time and Telia today offers it at lower

price points than Elisa. Like with DNA, Elisa’s price depends on the chosen speed tier. In

December 2016, Elisa said that 58% of voice-also subscriptions had unlimited data volume.

The two Taiwanese operators Taiwan Mobile and FarEasTone are close to the podium with 8.7 GB and

8.2 GB per month in 2016. As described in the country report, new 4G-focused competition has forced the

Taiwanese incumbents to introduce unlimited data volume at very low price points. Even though these offers

are now partly rolled back, Taiwan’s high mobile data usage is likely here to stay.

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 4

Europe: Data usage spans from 0.2 to 10.9 GB per SIM per month

Now to the first of three breakdowns: Europe. The top three operators are the same as in the global

comparison: 3 Austria, DNA Finland and Elisa Finland.

Figure 2. Average data usage per SIM per month – European operators

The remaining European operators have customers with significantly lower usage than the top three, but

there are a number of operators that had an average usage above 3 GB per month in 2016. These operators

are from the Nordic countries (Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway), from Austria, from Poland – and ‘3’

from the UK.

But Europe has a long tail: Operators from five countries – Portugal, Greece, Belgium, Czech Republic

and Germany – hold the ten lowest usage positions.

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*) Calculated as country total minus all other (reporting) operators**) Data traffic not reported as such, but calculated based on reported usage

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 5

Asia and China: Data usage spans from 0.1 to 8.6 GB per SIM per month

Taiwanese and Korean operators lead the Asian/Chinese ranking, see Figure 3. We already touched upon

Taiwan Mobile and FarEasTone in the global comparison. Their competitor, the fixed line incumbent

Chunghwa, ranks as number four with 4.7 GB, beaten for third place by the Korean challenger LG Uplus

whose customers averaged 5.7 GB in 2016.

Figure 3. Average data usage per SIM per month – Asian and Chinese operators

SK Telecom is fifth with 3.3 GB, followed by Singapore’s M1 with 2.7 GB. The two Malaysian operators

Maxis and Celcom are trailing – but if you instead look at the Q1 2017 bars, you can see that the two

Malaysian operators have experienced fast data usage growth and passed M1 in Q1 2017.

The three Chinese operators China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom are mid-ranked with 0.5-

0.6 GB per month. Note though that all three exclude data-only from their reported data traffic.

A country with very fast data usage growth is Indonesia. Axiata’s XL is having twice the usage (1.0 GB) of

the two larger competitors Indosat and Telkomsel, but all three operators have had significant growth

between 2016 and Q1 2017.

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*) Calculated as country total minus all other (reporting) operators**) Data traffic not reported as such, but calculated based on reported usage

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 6

There’s been much written about the turmoil in the Indian operator market lately, but the average data

usage of the reporting Indian operators – Reliance (RCom), Airtel, Idea and Vodafone – is still low: 0.2-0.3

GB per month. The new entrant Jio isn’t reporting, but the growth reported by TRAI, the regulator, in

country traffic could suggest that Jio’s average usage is as high as 10 GB, i.e. 50 times higher. It is obvious

that Jio’s free introductory offer is explaining much of the difference.

RoW: Data usage spans from 0.2 to 2.2 GB per SIM per month

The rest of world ranking combines North American, Latin American and Russian operators with operators

from MEA and reporting international groups, see Figure 4.

It is a pity that none of the US or Canadian operators report their data traffic or usage. The only sample in

Figure 4 is Verizon, based on a smartphone usage number reported as early as April 2016. It’s likely that

other US carriers, such as T-Mobile and Sprint would have higher data usage – but it is not reported.

Figure 4. Average data usage per SIM per month – RoW operators

Russian and Turkish operators have high average usage. If we look at the Q1 2017 figures, we can also see

that it is growing fast.

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*) Calculated as country total minus all other (reporting) operators**) Data traffic not reported as such, but calculated based on reported usage

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 7

The groups – albeit with quite different geography – are mid-ranked with an average usage around 0.5 GB

per month. The Latin American operators have – with the exception of Chile – low average usage. Movistar

Peru has though had good growth so far in 2017.

Last-ranked Vodacom Group is very much dominated by South Africa and is our only case of sub-Saharan

operators in this analysis.

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 8

Data traffic spans from 11 to 5681 PB

We have seen that the data usage varies much between customers of different operators in different

countries. If we instead compare total data traffic, the spread will be even wider, see Figure 5.

Figure 5. Total data traffic – all operators

Gold China Mobile with 5681 PB in 2016

Even though China Mobile – the operator with the world’s largest subscription base

(849 million in December 2016) – just includes handset data in its reported mobile

data traffic, it is anyhow, by far, the largest traffic volume in the world. Noticeably,

China Mobile uses the home-grown Chinese TD-LTE standard for 4G having built 1.5 million such base

stations (of a total of 3 million base stations including 2G and 3G).

Silver Verizon USA with 2986 PB in 2016

As said, Verizon doesn’t report data traffic and our figure is calculated based on a single

smartphone usage indication given in April 2016. The world’s largest operator in revenue is

anyhow becoming number two in the world in total data traffic.

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*) Calculated as country total minus all other (reporting) operators**) Data traffic not reported as such, but calculated based on reported usage

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 9

Bronze China Unicom with 1608 PB in 2016

Like its larger competitor China Mobile, China Unicom is also just reporting handset data.

When it comes to 4G, China Unicom (as well as fifth-ranked China Telecom) uses the ‘regular’

FDD-LTE standard having built 740000 such base stations.

Other operators that are highly ranked are MegaFon from Russia, SK Telecom from Korea and Telkomsel

from Indonesia.

Europe: Data traffic spans from 11 to 514 PB

Now to the European breakdown. Since the highest ranked European operator just is number 16 in our

global rank, we could conclude that the European countries are less populated than the global leaders. This

is only partly true, though: Korea is having a population of 51 million and Taiwan 24 million – less than

Europe’s largest country Germany’s 81 million. Yet Germany is behind Korea and Taiwan in mobile data

traffic.

The largest European operator when it comes to mobile data traffic carried in 2016 isn’t German either. It is

instead Plus/Cyfrowy Polsat from Poland, see Figure 6.

Figure 6. Total data traffic – European operators

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*) Calculated as country total minus all other (reporting) operators**) Data traffic not reported as such, but calculated based on reported usage

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 10

Similar to ‘3’ in Austria (that we described in the previous section), Plus/Cyfrowy Polsat has bet much on

data-only propositions for fixed broadband replacement. Typically these come with 50-100 GB caps, but

these do not (currently at least) apply to pure 4G.

Third-ranked Play is also Polish and has a similar approach as Plus/Cyfrowy Polsat. The more premium plans

are marketed as ‘unlimited’ but are throttled after a certain (high) cap. This applies to both data-only and

smartphone plans.

The second-ranked operator, Wind 3 from Italy, didn’t exist during all of 2016 – the JV was started in

November – so this is the pro-forma position of Wind 3. You will find Wind and ‘3’ as stand-alone entities

further down in the ranking. It was instead Vodafone Italy (ranked 10) that carried the most mobile data of

the Italian stand-alone operators in 2016.

Finland is just having 5.5 million inhabitants, but Elisa is still ranked as number 4 in Europe having carried

more data in 2016 than any operator from Germany (81 Mpop) and from the UK (65 Mpop). Even though

there’s just one French operator, Bouygues (ranked #13), in Figure 6 – simply because the others aren’t

reporting – the total traffic in France isn’t high enough for any of the other French operators (Orange, SFR,

Free) to challenge Elisa’s position even though there are 67 million inhabitants in France. Elisa’s competitors

DNA and Telia are ranked number 9 and 15 respectively.

Europe’s largest operator in number of SIMs – O2 Germany – is ranked as low as number 14.

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 11

Asia and China: Data traffic spans from 12 to 5681 PB

It should come as no surprise to anybody that the three largest carriers in Asia/China are the three Chinese

operators China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. As there is no significant difference in data

usage per subscription between the three, their ranking follows the subscription market share.

Figure 7. Total data traffic – Asian and Chinese operators

The Korean market leader, SK Telecom, follows as number 4. The Korean challenger LG Uplus is number

6 due to a lower subscription base; Uplus’ usage per SIM is actually higher.

Telkomsel from Indonesia – with 170 million subscribers – is number 5 and the three largest Taiwanese

operators Taiwan Mobile, FarEasTone and Chunghwa rank 7, 8 and 10.

The largest reporting Indian operator, Airtel, ranks as number 9 even though Airtel has about 270 million

subscriptions. The newcomer Jio isn’t reporting its traffic but hasn’t anyhow been in operation the whole of

2016 (operations commenced in September). It is very likely that Jio currently has a higher total traffic than

Airtel even though the subscriber count “just” is 100 million. Have in mind, though, that many of these

subscribers have been attracted by Jio’s free launch proposition. Vodafone India (#13) and Idea (#15)

are in the process of merging and their combined data traffic would be larger than Airtel’s.

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N

Chunghw

a, TW

XL, ID

Indosa

t, I

D

Vodafo

ne, IN

Relia

nce

(Rco

m),

IN

Idea, IN

**M

axis

, M

Y

Celc

om

, M

Y

**Ja

zz, PK

**G

ram

eenphone, BD

**Bangla

link, BD

Dia

log, LK

**Sin

gte

l, S

G

**M

1, SG

Robi, B

D

Nce

ll, N

P

Mo

bil

e d

ata

tra

ffic

[P

B]

FY 2016 Q1 2017

*) Calculated as country total minus all other (reporting) operators**) Data traffic not reported as such, but calculated based on reported usage

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 12

RoW: Data traffic spans from 66 to 2986 PB

Figure 8 collects operators from the rest of the world, but also a few reporting international groups.

Figure 8. Total data traffic – Rest of world operators

Based on the conservative assumption described in the previous section, Verizon was a larger carrier of

mobile data in 2016 than the whole of the Vodafone Group (ranked number 2). Verizon was also larger

than the whole of Telefónica Group (#3).

Russian operator MegaFon (#4) is an international giant in mobile data. Even though MegaFon’s local

competitors VEON (ex-VimpelCom) and MTS are also large, MegaFon is larger. This can be attributed to

MegaFon’s acquisition of the 4G data-only specialist Yota back in 2013.

The Latin American operators are generally – with the exception of Chile – having low average data usage

and end up in the bottom half of Figure 8.

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

**Verizo

n, U

S

Vodafo

ne, G

roup (

incl

. IN

, N

L)

Tele

fónic

a, G

roup

**M

egaFon, RU

VEO

N, G

roup

3 E

uro

pe, G

roup

Tele

nor,

Gro

up

**VEO

N, RU

**M

TS, RU

(sm

art

phone d

ata

only

)

**Turk

cell,

TR

Viv

o, BR

Vodafo

ne, TR

**Türk

Tele

kom

, TR

**TIM

, BR

Vodaco

m, G

roup

Vodafo

ne, EG

Movis

tar,

CL

Movis

tar,

AR

Movis

tar,

MX

Movis

tar,

PE

**D

jezz

y, D

Z

Movis

tar,

CO

Mo

bil

e d

ata

tra

ffic

[P

B]

FY 2016 Q1 2017

*) Calculated as country total minus all other (reporting) operators**) Data traffic not reported as such, but calculated based on reported usage

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 13

Revenue per GB spans between 1.2 and 48.4 EUR

In our country report, we have focused on mature markets. The way we calculate revenue per gigabyte –

total mobile service revenue per carried gigabyte – will resonate to mature markets where operators

generally aren’t attempting to monetise voice and SMS based on usage. Instead they have made voice and

messaging allowances unlimited and included them in a flat fee.

In maturing markets, usage-based monetisation is still used to a much higher degree. This is true also for

voice and messaging. With our calculation, one might conclude that the operators ending up with the

highest effective revenue per gigabyte would thus be operator from maturing markets. Figure 9 is though

showing that this is not the case.

Figure 9. Total mobile service revenue per gigabyte – all operators2

We will – for readability reasons – soon break down Figure 9 in Europe, Asia/China and RoW, but let’s first

look into a disclaimer with regards to operators marked with * or **.

2 That also report mobile service revenue

0

10

20

30

40

50

DN

A, FI

Elis

a, FI

3, AT

**Pla

y, PL

Taiw

an M

obile

, TW

**M

egaFon, RU

XL, ID

FarE

asT

one, TW

*Telia

, FI

3, D

K

Indosa

t, I

D

**VEO

N, RU

Chunghw

a, TW

3, SE

3 E

uro

pe, G

roup

Tele

nor,

SE

Telia

, LT

T-M

obile

, AT

Telia

, D

K

Bite, LT

*3, U

K

**LG

Uplu

s, K

R

Tele

2, LT

TD

C, D

K

**Türk

Tele

kom

, TR

Celc

om

, M

Y

Tele

2, SE

**Ja

zz, PK

Ora

nge, PL

**M

TS, RU

(sm

art

phone)

**M

axi

s, M

Y

Telk

om

sel, I

D

Relia

nce

(Rco

m),

IN

**Bangla

link, BD

Ice, N

O

Vodafo

ne, TR

Dia

log, LK

*Tele

2, N

L

Tele

nor,

DK

**M

1, SG

**SK T

ele

com

, KR

Movis

tar,

CL

*3, IT

*W

ind 3

, IT

(pro

form

a)

Vodafo

ne, RO

*T-M

obile

, PL

Win

d, IT

Telia

, N

O

Vodafo

ne, EG

**G

ram

eenphone, BD

Robi, B

D

Bouygues,

FR

Movis

tar,

CO

Telia

, SE

Airte

l, I

N

EE, U

K

Chin

a U

nic

om

, CN

(handse

t)

Idea, IN

Movis

tar,

AR

**TIM

, BR

Vodafo

ne, PT

Vodafo

ne, G

roup (

incl

. IN

, N

L)

**D

jezz

y, D

Z

Chin

a M

obile

, CN

(handse

t)

Vodafo

ne, IN

Movis

tar,

MX

Chin

a T

ele

com

, CN

(handse

t)

Vodafo

ne, IT

Movis

tar,

PE

Vodafo

ne, ES

Viv

o, BR

TIM

, IT

**Sin

gte

l, S

G

*Tele

kom

, D

E

**Verizo

n, U

S

O2, D

E

**T-M

obile

, N

L

T-M

obile

, CZ

O2, CZ

Vodafo

ne, D

E

Tele

nor,

NO

O2, U

K

Vodaco

m, G

roup

*A1, AT

Vodafo

ne, U

K

**Pro

xim

us,

BE +

Tango, LU

**KPN

, N

L

Vodafo

ne, N

L

**O

range, BE+

LU

Nce

ll, N

P

Vodafo

ne, G

R

*Tele

net

BASE, BE

*M

EO

, PT

To

tal m

ob

ile

se

rvic

e r

eve

nu

e p

er

Gb

yte

[E

UR

]

*) Data traffic calculated as country total minus all other (reporting) operators

**) Data traffic not reported as such, but calculated based on reported usage

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 14

Having explained this, let’s now in Figure 9 identify the operators that get the lowest total mobile service

revenue per gigabyte in the world:

1. DNA, Finland – 1.2 EUR

2. Elisa, Finland – 1.6 EUR

3. 3, Austria – 1.7 EUR

4. Play, Poland** – 2.2 EUR

5. Taiwan Mobile, Taiwan – 2.2 EUR

6. MegaFon, Russia** – 2.3 EUR

7. XL, Indonesia – 2.4 EUR

8. FarEasTone, Taiwan – 2.4 EUR

9. Telia, Finland* – 2.6 EUR

10. 3, Denmark – 2.8 EUR

When reporting mobile data traffic, take inspiration from Vodafone and Telefónica

All graphs in this analysis carry this legend:

*) Data traffic calculated as country total minus all other (reporting) operators

**) Data traffic not reported as such, but calculated based on reported usage

There are a number of operators globally that, in their regular easy-to-use Excel sheets, report their total mobile

data traffic quarter by quarter. Of the larger operators groups, Vodafone and Telefónica are two good examples.

We encourage all operators to follow their example.

Some operators are instead reporting – or occasionally indicating – data usage. These are the operators marked

with **. The problem here is that most operators aren’t defining what a user is – sometimes it is all users,

sometimes “active data users” (whatever that is), sometimes smartphone users, sometimes branded smartphone

users, sometimes postpaid users. Typically these usage numbers are stated to impress, i.e. they are

representative only for a smaller, high-usage, segment of the subscriber base. An exception to that operators

reporting usage isn’t reporting the number of users is VEON Group that reports the usage per mobile data

customer and the number of such mobile data customers (which is a subset of the total customer base).

The majority of operators are still not reporting anything, though. Orange Group, Telia Company and Telenor

Group are examples of it. And, of course, all North American carriers. In some cases, country regulators are helpful

in reporting a breakdown per operator. But in most cases, the country regulator is just reporting a total. In such

occasions – and if also all other operators report data traffic or at least usage – we have calculated the country

residual and assumed that this traffic equals that of the non-reporting operator. These are the operators marked

with *.

It’s not necessarily so that a regulator and the reporting operators use exactly the same definition when reporting

data traffic. Traffic via MVNOs can disturb the comparability. Where the error risks to be the largest, though, is in

countries where the country residual has been assigned to a *-marked operator while, at the same time, one or

several of the other operators are **-marked operators, i.e. have not explicitly reported the total data traffic but

some type of usage.

So if any operator (*-marked or **-marked) is unhappy with its calculated data traffic, the solution is simple: Start to

report your total mobile data traffic.

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 15

With the exception of XL from Indonesia, all these operators are active in high data usage markets where

they have usage leadership positions. Even though XL (with 1.0 GB per SIM and month in 2016) is the local

usage leader, 1.0 GB isn’t high internationally, so it is instead the low revenue in Indonesia that explains the

position.

The operators that get the highest total mobile service revenue per gigabyte in the world are:

1. MEO, Portugal* – 48.4 EUR

2. Telenet BASE, Belgium* – 44.0 EUR

3. Vodafone, Greece – 42.7 EUR

4. Ncell, Nepal – 41.5 EUR

5. Orange, Belgium & Luxembourg** – 40.0 EUR

6. Vodafone, Netherlands – 39.4 EUR

7. KPN, Netherlands** – 34.4 EUR

8. Proximus, Belgium & Tango, Luxembourg** – 33.7 EUR

9. Vodafone, UK – 28.8 EUR

10. A1, Austria* – 23.8 EUR

In this group of revenue per gigabyte maximisers, it is four – Vodafone Greece, Ncell Nepal, Vodafone

Netherlands and Vodafone UK – that report their total mobile data traffic. For the other six, there is a risk of

a calculation error as just described in the grey text box. Still, with the exception of A1 Austria and possibly

MEO, the fact that also other operators of the same countries clutter in the top makes it is plausible that the

top list is representative for the countries in which operators get the highest revenue per gigabyte: Belgium,

Greece, Nepal (due to very, very low usage) and the Netherlands.

In the country report, you can also identify Belgium and the Netherlands as the two country markets (of the

covered) with the highest revenue per gigabyte. As commented in that report, Greece would likely also be

there – if 2016 data would be available from the Greek regulator.

We conclude that there is a 39-fold difference between the operator with the highest revenue per

gigabyte and the operator with the lowest.

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 16

Europe: Revenue per GB spans between 1.2 and 48.4 EUR

Figure 10 shows the European breakdown. Since European operators dominated both the bottom and top of

the chart, the spread is as large as in the global view.

Figure 10. Total mobile service revenue per gigabyte – European operators

The position of ‘3’ is important to point out: In each European market where it operates – Austria, Denmark,

Sweden, the UK and Italy3 – ‘3’ has revenues per gigabyte which are lower than all of its local competition.

It’s thus fair to say that ‘3’ has done a lot to improve the competitiveness of many European markets when it

comes to mobile data. At the same time, 3 Group has been allowed (by the European Commission) to

consolidate several European markets; Austria, Ireland and Italy have all gone from four to three4 MNOs

based on initiatives taken by 3’s owner CK Hutchison. The exception is the UK where the European

Commission turned down 3’s request to merge with O2.

3 No data exists for 3 Ireland 4 Italy will come back to four MNOs as a result of the remedies agreed with the EU: Iliad (owner of French operator Free) will use

assets sold by 3 and Wind as basis for a new fourth MNO

0

10

20

30

40

50

DN

A, FI

Elis

a, FI

3, AT

**Pla

y, PL

*Telia

, FI

3, D

K

3, SE

3 E

uro

pe, G

roup

Tele

nor,

SE

Telia

, LT

T-M

obile

, AT

Telia

, D

K

Bite, LT

*3, U

K

Tele

2, LT

TD

C, D

K

Tele

2, SE

Ora

nge, PL

Ice, N

O

*Tele

2, N

L

Tele

nor,

DK

*3, IT

*W

ind 3

, IT

(pro

form

a)

Vodafo

ne, RO

*T-M

obile

, PL

Win

d, IT

Telia

, N

O

Bouygues,

FR

Telia

, SE

EE, U

K

Vodafo

ne, PT

Vodafo

ne, IT

Vodafo

ne, ES

TIM

, IT

*Tele

kom

, D

E

O2, D

E

**T-M

obile

, N

L

T-M

obile

, CZ

O2, CZ

Vodafo

ne, D

E

Tele

nor,

NO

O2, U

K

*A1, AT

Vodafo

ne, U

K

**Pro

xim

us,

BE +

Tango, LU

**KPN

, N

L

Vodafo

ne, N

L

**O

range, BE+

LU

Vodafo

ne, G

R

*Tele

net

BASE, BE

*M

EO

, PT

To

tal m

ob

ile

se

rvic

e r

eve

nu

e p

er

Gb

yte

[E

UR

]

*) Data traffic calculated as country total minus all other (reporting) operators**) Data traffic not reported as such, but calculated based on reported usage

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 17

Asia and China: Revenue per GB spans between 2.2 and 41.5 EUR

Figure 11 shows the Asian and Chinese operators. Taiwanese and Indonesian operators are having the

lowest revenue per gigabyte whereas the mobile operators in China (based only on handset data) and

India dominate the upper half. The latter is interesting given all the discussions following Jio’s free data

launch in September 2016.

Figure 11. Total mobile service revenue per gigabyte – Asian and Chinese operators

We touched upon Ncell already – where very low data usage explains the position.

The difference between Singapore’s Singtel and M1 – which puzzles us – is likely to be found in how the

two operators report data usage: Singtel is only reporting data usage per smartphone user – without

reporting the number of such users. We made an assumption that the number of smartphone users equals

the number of postpaid users. M1 is reporting usage both per postpaid smartphone and occasionally also per

prepaid (smartphone?) user, but also here guidance on the number of such users is missing. Summing

Singtel and M1 up makes the country residual (which should equal the third, non-reporting, operator

StarHub) too small. Our country report shows that Singapore has the slowest growth in mobile data traffic of

the 33 markets covered. In that perspective it’s interesting to note that Singapore in the end of last year

licensed a fourth mobile operator, TPG Telecom.

0

10

20

30

40

50

Taiw

an M

obile

, TW

XL, ID

FarE

asT

one, TW

Indosa

t, I

D

Chunghw

a, TW

**LG

Uplu

s, K

R

Celc

om

, M

Y

**Ja

zz, PK

**M

axis

, M

Y

Telk

om

sel, I

D

Relia

nce

(Rco

m),

IN

**Bangla

link, BD

Dia

log, LK

**M

1, SG

**SK T

ele

com

, KR

**G

ram

eenphone, BD

Robi, B

D

Airte

l, I

N

Chin

a U

nic

om

, CN

(handse

t)

Idea, IN

Chin

a M

obile

, CN

(handse

t)

Vodafo

ne, IN

Chin

a T

ele

com

, CN

(handse

t)

**Sin

gte

l, S

G

Nce

ll, N

P

To

tal m

ob

ile

se

rvic

e r

eve

nu

e p

er

Gb

yte

[E

UR

]

*) Data traffic calculated as country total minus all other (reporting) operators**) Data traffic not reported as such, but calculated based on reported usage

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 18

RoW: Revenue per GB spans between 2.3 and 23.8 EUR

Finally Figure 12 which shows the operators in the rest of the world alongside a few groups that separate

out mobile service revenue in their reporting.

Figure 12. Total mobile service revenue per gigabyte – rest of world operators

Operators from Russia and Turkey have the lowest revenue per gigabyte whereas Latin American operators

dominate the middle. Verizon is having the second-highest revenue per gigabyte in this RoW cluster, passed

only by the South Africa-dominated Vodacom Group.

0

5

10

15

20

25

**M

egaFon, RU

**VEO

N, RU

**Türk

Tele

kom

, TR

**M

TS, RU

(sm

art

phone)

Vodafo

ne, TR

Movis

tar,

CL

Vodafo

ne, EG

Movis

tar,

CO

Movis

tar,

AR

**TIM

, BR

Vodafo

ne, G

roup (

incl

. IN

, N

L)

**D

jezz

y, D

Z

Movis

tar,

MX

Movis

tar,

PE

Viv

o, BR

**Verizo

n, U

S

Vodaco

m, G

roup

To

tal m

ob

ile

se

rvic

e r

eve

nu

e p

er

Gb

yte

[E

UR

]

*) Data traffic calculated as country total minus all other (reporting) operators**) Data traffic not reported as such, but calculated based on reported usage

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 19

Let’s put it all together

Let us now combine the revenue per gigabyte with the usage. Those of you that have read our data usage

and revenue analyses before are familiar with the revenue vs. usage chart. But where it is normally

populated with countries, it is for the first time now populated with operators, see Figure 13.

Figure 13. Mobile data usage vs. total mobile service revenue per Gbyte

With all those markers, we have only been able to highlight the operators that have more extreme positions.

The amber line is not a regression line, but illustrates where 20 EUR of ARPU is earned.

Most mature markets operators operate with an APRU of around 20 EUR. Many operators in maturing

markets clutter in the southwest or south parts of the chart.

One could criticise the chart for comparing the number of gigabytes with something that relates to it – the

revenue per gigabyte. Our next chart, Figure 14, is therefore comparing the number of gigabytes with the

revenue per subscription, i.e. the ARPU. And that is perhaps even more interesting.

Tele2, SE

Telenor, SE3, SE

3, DK

Telenor, DK

Telia, DK

Elisa, FI

*Telia, FI

DNA, FI

T-Mobile, AT

3, AT

O2, CZ

EE, UKVodafone, UK

O2, UK

*3, UK

**Play, PL

**Proximus, BE + Tango, LU

**Orange, BE+LU*Telenet BASE, BE

TIM, IT

*3, IT

**KPN, NL Vodafone, NL

*Tele2, NL

*MEO, PT

Telenor, NO

Telia, NO

Ice, NO

Bite, LT**MegaFon, RU

**VEON, RU

**Maxis, MY

Celcom, MY**Singtel, SG

**M1, SG

**SK Telecom, KR

**LG Uplus, KR

FarEasTone, TW

Chunghwa, TW

Taiwan Mobile, TW

**Verizon, US

3 Europe, Group

Vodacom, Group

Ncell, NPVodafone, IN**Jazz, PK

**Banglalink, BD

XL, ID

Indosat, ID

Idea, IN0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Gb

yte

pe

r S

IM a

nd

mo

nth

Total mobile service revenue per Gbyte [EUR]

20 EUR ARPU line

*) Data traffic calculated as country total minus all other (reporting) operators**) Data traffic not reported as such, but calculated based on reported usage

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 20

Figure 14. Mobile data usage vs. total mobile service revenue per SIM

Of the 93 operators in this sample5, there are two – Verizon and Telenor Norway – that enjoy much

higher total mobile service revenue per SIM than the other operators. It is interesting that this happens even

though the mobile data usage isn’t particularly high.

In contrast, there are a number of operators with just half that ARPU even though the average usage level is

3-5 times higher than Verizon/Telenor: 3 Austria and Denmark, DNA, Elisa & Telia from Finland and

Taiwan Mobile & FarEasTone from Taiwan.

In general, there’s a bit of hope in Figure 14, though: The grey regression line suggests that operators

with higher data usage have higher ARPU.

To moderate this, one has to realise that the adherence to this line (shown by a R2 value much below 1) is

poor. And we should also remember that the line points to an international – not a national – trend: It is

quite difficult to find national examples showing that operators with higher data usage enjoy higher ARPU.

Quite often – like Figure 14 shows for e.g. the Netherlands, Finland and Norway – it is the opposite. It’s the

challenger operator that has the customers with the highest data usage and challenger operators tend to

have lower ARPU than incumbents.

5 All that report both mobile data traffic/usage and mobile service revenue

Tele2, SE

Telenor, SE3, SE

3, DK

Telenor, DKTDC,DK

Telia, DK

Elisa, FI

*Telia, FI

DNA, FI

T-Mobile, AT

3, AT

EE, UKVodafone, UK

*3, UK

**Play, PL

*Telenet BASE, BE

TIM, IT

*3, IT

**KPN, NL Vodafone, NL

*Tele2, NL

Telenor, NO

Telia, NO

Ice, NO

Bite, LT**MegaFon, RU

**VEON, RU

**Maxis, MY

Celcom, MY**Singtel, SG

**M1, SG

**SK Telecom, KR

**LG Uplus, KR

FarEasTone, TW

Chunghwa, TW

Taiwan Mobile, TW

**Verizon, US

3 Europe, Group

**Jazz, PK

XL, ID

Indosat, ID

R² = 0,1902

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Gb

yte

pe

r S

IM a

nd

mo

nth

Total mobile service revenue per SIM and month [EUR]

20 EUR ARPU line*) Data traffic calculated as country total

minus all other (reporting) operators**) Data traffic not reported as such,

but calculated based on reported usage

tefficient AB www.tefficient.com 13 July 2017 21

Conclusion

The viewpoint that the mobile data market is commoditised has become more prevalent in the last

year. It’s a view that many operators share.

Our analysis shows that this is just partly true: An absolute majority of mobile operators are

getting revenues per gigabyte that signal luxury goods, not commodity.

We strongly believe that there’s a link between customer loyalty and high data usage. And

believe that what matters to the business performance of operators – today and even more so in

the future – is boiling down to one thing: Customer loyalty.

We have said it before6: Most mobile operators need to become more generous with data.

That’s how you remain relevant and that’s how you will keep your customers – because they love

what they can do with data. And do not forget that Wi-Fi too is mobile data7.

International telco competitiveness specialist providing operators and suppliers with analysis, benchmarks and go-to-

market preparation. Expertise in quad-play, data monetisation, customer loyalty, Nonstop Retention®, mobile video, Wi-

Fi business models and high margin equipment sales.

www.tefficient.com

6 E.g. in the conclusion of http://tefficient.com/unlimited-pushes-data-usage-to-new-heights/ 7 For inspiration, read: http://tefficient.com/upsell-and-loyalty-strategies-of-operators-using-public-wi-fi-as-customer-magnet/