Global revenue from wholesale telecom services will reach...

Global revenue from wholesale telecom services will reach $142 billion annually by 2019 due to accelerating traffic and “intensified retail competition,” research firm Ovum said Monday in a report. The Asia-Pacific region will have the “steepest” growth in wholesale revenue because of retail competition and “escalating international traffic,” it said, noting China, Malaysia and South Korea as major contributors to that growth. Asia-Pacific’s share of wholesale revenue will grow to 26 percent by 2019, up from 17 percent in 2012, Ovum said. Wholesale revenues will still be concentrated among the largest telcos in 2019, with most of the top 20 wholesale telcos that year still based in North America and Europe, Ovum said. “New types of service provider are emerging, but their need for connectivity will stimulate greater demand for traditional wholesale services, while those telcos that do innovate at a retail service level will create demand from those that don’t,” said David James, Ovum’s practice leader-wholesale research, in a news release (http://bit.ly/1zkChfF).