5G to drive mobile service revenue to over $2 billion by 2027

The growth of 5G services in Singapore is expected to fuel the mobile data segment, which in turn is set to drive the country’s mobile service revenue at a CAGR of 3% from 2022 to 2027. As a result, the revenue is projected to reach $2.1 billion by the end of the forecast period, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s Singapore Mobile Broadband Forecast (Q1-2023) reveals that mobile voice service revenue will decline at a 4.6% CAGR over the forecast period due to the widespread consumer shift towards over-the-top (OTT) based communication platforms and the subsequent decline in voice service average revenue per user (ARPU) levels.

Mobile data service revenue, on the other hand, will increase at a healthy CAGR of 7.2% between 2022 and 2027, driven by the growing consumption of mobile data services and the projected rise in higher-ARPU-yielding 5G subscriptions as 5G services become more widely available across the country.

Hrushikesh Mahananda, telecom research analyst at GlobalData, commented: “The average monthly data usage will increase from 9.4GB in 2022 to 23.6GB in 2027, driven by the increasing consumption of online video and social media content over smartphones, on the back of 5G network expansion and thanks to data-centric offers extended by MNOs with their 5G service plans.

4G will remain the leading mobile technology in terms of subscriptions until 2024. 5G service will see its subscriptions surpass 4G service subscriptions in 2025 and is expected to corner an impressive 76% share of the total mobile subscriptions by the end of 2027. This growth in 5G subscriptions will be primarily driven by the ongoing 5G network expansions by MNOs and the increase in commercial 5G adoption to support M2M/IoT implementations, as well as smart city applications.

“Singtel will continue to dominate the mobile services market in terms of subscription through 2027, given its strong focus on 5G network developments and expansion across the country. Moreover, the operator is actively seeking partnership and collaboration opportunities with system integrators, app developers, IoT solution providers and other ecosystem partners to develop new 5G solutions and use cases targeted at its enterprise customers,” said Mahananda.