Mobile data revenue may triple to $14 billion in next 2 years: CLSA

KOLKATA: Mobile data revenue is set to nearly “treble to $14 billion" in the next two years as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular focus on 4G services ahead of new entrant Reliance Jio's high-speed voice and data services rollout, brokerage CLSA said on Monday.

An improving 4G ecosystem, market leader Bharti Airtel's expanding 4G play and the upcoming launches of fourth generation services by Reliance Jio, Vodafone and Idea are seen as prime drivers of mobile data, CLSA said in a note to clients. The brokerage also expects mobile data to continue driving long-term growth.

Analysts at CLSA expect mobile data revenue to nearly "triple to $14 billion over FY15-18CL (closing)," given that the top three operators Bharti Air tel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular continue to gain market share and account for 73% of the sector.

Overall, 4G smartphones sales, it said, had increased amid improved availability of such handsets with market leader Airtel expanding its 4G services ahead of Jio's launch.

"Over the past nine months, 4G (handset) shipments jumped from 1 million to 5.5 million, implying one of every four smartphones shipped is 4G," analysts at CLSA said in a note to clients. On the contrary , non-4G smartphone shipments, it said, have slipped from 20 million in the third quarter of FY15 to 18.9 million in first quarter FY16.

Accordingly, analysts at CLSA expect the share of smartphones in overall handset sales in the country to jump "to 70% by FY18 from the present 45%," on expectations of large scale 4G-LTE offerings.