Second quarter results from major operators across emerging markets in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe show modest growth in subscriptions and usage. According to a recent report from Strategy Analytics, after three successive flat or declining quarters, average minutes of use (MOU) for a basket of 26 key operators climbed 5% in Q2 2009. Total subscriptions rose 4%, continuing a recovering trend begun in the first quarter of the year.
However, the report author Tom Elliott says it’s still not time to open the champagne. “There is still a lot of potential weakness in these markets,” he said, adding that handset sales remain well below the levels of a year ago, and many carriers have been unable to convert growth in subscriptions and traffic into increased revenue.
Moreover, emerging market economies also remain highly dependent on conditions in the developed world. Factors that will certainly help bring back the higher rate of growth include demand for commodity products, foreign aid and home-bound remittances from overseas workers.
President of Strategy Analytics, Harvey Cohen, said this global crisis has debunked the myth that developed and developing economies have been decoupled. “Growth of communications activity is a good indicator of economic health, particularly at the so-called ‘bottom of the pyramid.’ If you don’t have the money you’re not going to buy that phone, or make that extra call,” he concluded.
[Via: CellularNews]