In the period to 2010, the percentage of mobile operator revenues contributed by data traffic is set to rise from 12% to 18%, according to Mobile Content and Services, a new report from Informa Telecoms and Media. Currently, the global market for mobile data services and content is worth in excess of US$71bn. Operators have seen steadily declining voice revenues year on year caused by an increasingly competitive marketplace, coupled with an increasingly demanding subscriber base. It is expected that over the next five years this decline in voice ARPU will be offset somewhat by data revenues as operators finally start to realise the potential of the huge investments they made in mobile data networks. The author of the report, Daniel Winterbottom, says there will be significant revenue growth from the entertainment sector, with a fivefold increase in mobile video users. The most dynamic level of growth will come from gaming with more than 458mn users expected worldwide by the end of the forecast period. Person to person messaging currently represents the largest proportion of an operator’s data revenues, and by 2010 will contribute in excess of US$87bn to the their coffers. However, the commoditisation of SMS services will lead to an erosion of the profits made on them that operators can ill-afford to lose. The uptake of MMS messaging has been slow in all markets and it is expected that revenues from picture messaging will be less than 50% of SMS by 2010.

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