According to a report by ABI Research, mobile end-user ARPUs dropped between 6 percent to 9 percent globally, year-over-year in the third quarter of 2009.
India, the world's second-largest market in terms of subscribers, saw ARPUs dropping more than 10 percent year-over-year in the same period, as new operators and the introduction of per-second billing put heavy downward pressure on voice revenues.
In Europe, the ARPU contraction was in the range of 5 percent to 8 percent, with Austria seeing a contraction of more than 9 percent. However, ABI Research estimates that ARPU decline is likely to flatten out in developed markets in Europe and North America as mobile data revenue increasingly replaces falling voice revenue.
The firm suggests that as voice revenues decline, mobile operators will have to increase the uptake of mobile Internet services and revenues to defend their ARPU.
Globally, the growth in minutes of use has also peaked and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of only 1.4 percent between 2009 and 2015. Much of this growth is driven by developing markets in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
"Mobile data traffic has exploded in the past two years and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of over 40 percent from 2009-2015. Operators can cash in on this demand by enlarging their mobile broadband coverage, thus increasing their user base. This has started to happen in developed markets such as the U.K. and U.S., where mobile Internet service revenues have grown over 12 percent and 8 percent year-over-year, respectively," said analyst Bhavya Khanna in a statement.