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Mobile data services to become main revenue contributor in German mobile market

Xinhua, February 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

Mobile data services was expected to replace voice calls in German mobile market as the main revenue contributor in 2015, said German IT industry association BITKOM on Monday.

Sales in mobile data services were expected to increase by 6.3 percent this year to 10.3 billion euros (about 11.7 billion U.S. dollars), while revenue generated from voice calls would be down by 8 percent to 9.7 billion euros, said the Berlin-based group.

"We're seeing this year a major revolution in the mobile market," said Jens Schulte-Bockum, a BITKOM board member and the chief executive of Vodafone Germany, "The mobile Internet has become the driving market force."

According to BITKOM, the boom of mobile data services were mainly due to the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, fast transmission standards such as LTE, the popularity of social networks and apps, as well as the digitization of industry.

As a result, the amount of data in German mobile network was also expected to rise from 370 million gigabytes to 480 million gigabytes this year, increasing demands on the infrastructure.

Schulte-Bockum said mobile network operators were also facing challenges as the increase in mobile data services revenue would not offset the loss of sales in voice calls.

"The providers are under tremendous competitive and pricing pressures," he said. Endit