[Infonetics]: "it comes down to subscribers either being willing to pay a fair price for the services provided or not"

A new research by Stéphane Téral (pictured), principal analyst for mobile infrastructure and carrier economics, Infonetics Research finds that "over-the-top voice revenue is shifting away from mobile operators .. SMS use is fading in places like Japan, the US, the Netherlands, and the UK in favor of free applications over mobile broadband that enable internet browsing, email and, more importantly, video .. Those services may be free to subscribers, but handling the traffic is not free to the network operators. Service providers are spending billions of dollars to upgrade their networks to handle the skyrocketing traffic; if they don’t, they face network outages and subscriber turnover. They’re all looking for cost savings and efficiencies. But it comes down to subscribers either being willing to pay a fair price for the services provided or not".

• Mobile service revenue is increasing year-over-year but the growth rate is decreasing and in some cases not keeping pace with network operator capital expenditures (capex)
• Despite the rise of revenue from mobile data services, blended ARPU continues to fall or stay flat due to fierce competition, declining voice ARPU, and regulatory tariffs
• Mobile broadband services are growing fastest, with global revenue on track to nearly double between 2012 and 2016.

See "Mobile operators feeling pressure from OTT and free services" - here.