5G drives Chinese mobile service to rise at 3.1% in 2026

Chinese mobile service revenues are expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate CAGR of 3.1 percent from $131.3 billion in 2021 to $152.7 billion in 2026, according to a study published on Thursday.  

London-based data analytics company, GlobalData published a study showing that the mobile data revenues will witness a rise in its CAGR reaching 6.8 percent due to the growing adoption of 5G services, followed by the rise in data Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU). 

“5G subscriptions will surpass 4G subscriptions in 2023 and go on to account for 73.8 percent of the total mobile subscriptions share in 2026, driven by the ongoing 5G network expansion by operators and increase in the availability of 5G-enabled smartphones,” said Harika Damidi, Telecoms Analyst at GlobalData. 

In parallel, findings indicate that the average mobile data usage is expected to increase from 9.9GB per month in 2021 to around 32.6GB per month in 2026, as a result to the mounting consumption of high-bandwidth online entertainment and social media content over smartphones. 

However, data revealed that the mobile voice revenues are supposed to drop at a CAGR of 5.2 percent between 2021 and 2026, due to falling voice ARPU levels. 

Damidi explained that the increase in penetration of Internet of Things (IoT) and M2M services are also expected to drive market growth during the forecast period. 

The analyst further highlighted that two state-owned companies had led the Chinese telecom market in terms of mobile subscriptions last year.  

Damidi said that China Mobile ranked first followed by China Telecom, explaining that China Mobile “is making strategic investments in 5G base stations, data centers, industrial Internet, and IoT to ensure its leadership.” 

It is worth mentioning that, in 2020, China mobile generated a revenue of $118.8 billion, in comparison China Telecom’s $60.91 billion during the same year according to Statista.