The data and analytics company say that with a total of 168 million subscriptions in 2017, the Japanese mobile market is the fourth largest in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. According to its Japan Country Intelligence Report, mobile data usage will more than double over the forecasted period, before reaching 9.9GB per month by the end of 2022 driven by the rise in usage of mobile video and users accessing social media content over smartphones.
Commenting on the findings, Sandeep Kolakotla, telecom analyst at GlobalData, said: “Mobile data revenue will continue to rise and play a major role in the growth of total telecom service revenue to 2022 as a result of rising smartphone penetration, growing adoption of 4G LTE/LTE-A services and higher value data packs. In addition, the planned rollout of 5G services during the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 will create major opportunities for investors and vendors in the Japanese telecom market.”
But while mobile data will rise, GlobalData predicts that mobile voice usage will continue to fall due to the growing adoption of OTT-based communications. In addition, the report found that the fixed services market will see a steady rise in the adoption of fibre-to-the-home or building, cable Internet subscriptions and growing average revenue per line for broadband connections which will drive fixed broadband revenue.
As for the pay-TV market, GlobalData predicts that growing Internet protocol television (IPTV) subscriptions and operator investments in high-definition and ultra-high-definition content technologies will boost revenue growth.
“The expansion of fibre-to-the-home services and deployment of next-generation broadband technologies, such as the G.fast ultra-broadband technology, will provide opportunities for (IPTV) service providers to bundle their offerings with fixed broadband lines and to introduce high-bandwidth applications such as 8K TV service. A favourable regulatory environment under which the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications plans to strengthen publicity and dissemination activities for consumers, increase transparency, permit new mobile operators to enter the market and promote fair competition for mobile services in Japan will support overall development in the Japanese telecom and pay-TV services market,” added Kolakotla.
