2008 Australia - Fixed & Mobile Telecoms Statistics (tables only)

This report provides 201 statistical tables relating to the overall fixed-line and mobile telecoms industries in Australia, including company operating and financial statistics. It does not include commentary or analysis, these being found in other BuddeComm reports. 

Overall telecoms market

BuddeComm estimates that the overall telecoms market grew by 6.0% to $38 billion in the 12 months to June 2008, but this growth rate in real terms is only around 4.7% if an inconsistency in Telstra’s financial reporting is eliminated. Telstra still dominates the overall Australian telecom market with a massive 66% market share of overall revenues in 2007/08. Optus’ market share of overall telco service revenues has been fairly stagnant over the past few years at just over 20%, and we predict a similar trend moving into 2009 and 2010. For the year to June 2008, the total mobile services market was $14.4 billion, with a growth rate of 9.6%. 

Infrastructure

Globally the focus of telecommunications infrastructure has shifted towards FttH. In Australia, the absence of decision-making and the ongoing delays in the broadband market are impeding the government’ desire to roll out next generation (NGN) telecoms infrastructure before the end of 2009. Without genuine participation from Telstra in the execution of the National Broadband Plan, any government investment would be wasted as Telstra refuses to participate in the process. Instead it has opted for a highly focused and successful campaign to delay any new form of competition. 

Nevertheless, telecoms networks are undergoing extraordinary changes with investments in All-IP NGNs and fibre networks in order to meet burgeoning consumer demand for high-bandwidth applications. Telehealth, e-education, media and sustainability are also the key reasons for Australia needing NGNs. By the mid-2000s, NGNs had become an integral part of the corporate networks and, by 2008, the majority of corporates had fully-deployed NGNs in place. The NGN market is set to grow significantly moving into 2009 as it cannibalises other telecoms revenues. 

Recent regulatory changes have also seen the ACCC putting its emphasis on facilities-based competition (ULL and DSLAMs) rather than on resale. This further undermines the position of not just the smaller ISPs, but also of the larger ISPs, like Primus and AAPT, which have significant numbers of resale customers. Further consolidation will be needed, especially in relation to those players with large resale customer bases. 

Mobile market

In a market that has already reached saturation, and where mobile call charges are declining, operators’ revenue growth will continue to taper off in 2009 and 2010. However, the revenue growth rate will remain well above the subscriber growth rate, largely due to increased revenue streams that the mobile operators are getting from 3G mobile data/mobile broadband. 

Nevertheless, revenue growth rate will remain well above the subscriber growth rate, largely due to the increased revenue streams that the mobile operators are getting from 3G mobile data / mobile broadband. 

Mobile data

The data market has now taken over the mobile sector the main driver of growth driven by the retail broadband sector. Mobile voice revenues are starting to decline in a saturated market, but the mobile wireless broadband sector is keeping mobile revenue growth reasonably strong. 

Wireless broadband

The fact that progress in wireless broadband is so painfully slow is creating anxiety in the market. The reality is that mobile voice and SMS still generate 90% of mobile revenues in coming years. Full-blown, end-to-end IP-based wireless broadband infrastructure will not be in place until 2012-2015. So the changeover, especially over the next few years, will remain rather slow, with an initial change starting perhaps later in 2009 when Optus has its nationwide 3G HSDPA network in place. Nevertheless we are seeing a real explosion in mobile wireless broadband. People are starting to take up an extra subscription: one for voice one for data. This will continue for a while before we see more combined offerings. 

Market Outlook to 2018

The industry is currently experiencing rebalancing and cannibalisation, but the underlying growth factors remain high and demand for high-speed infrastructure will outperform supply. This means significant growth in new IP-based NGN systems. That, in turn, will open up the market for digital media services, applications, video content hosting and distribution. By the end of 2018, FttH and wireless broadband will be widely available and will be used by the telecoms, IT and media industries. 

Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may not be for the current year.