The total mobile services revenue in Japan is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.4% from US$70.6bn in 2019 to US$87.7bn in 2024, led by mobile data services segment, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s Japan Telecom Operators Country Intelligence Report predicts that mobile voice and mobile messaging revenue will continue to decline over 2019-2024 while mobile service revenue will increase at a healthy CAGR of 7.5% over the same period. Growth in mobile data service revenue will be primarily driven by rise in data average revenue per user (ARPU) and growing consumption of mobile data services on the back of increasing consumption of high bandwidth video and social-media applications.

Deepa Dhingra, Telecom Analyst at GlobalData, says: “4G will remain the leading mobile technology during 2019-2024 but will see a drop in its share of total subscriptions from 71.5% in 2019 to 63.3% by 2024. This is primarily due to the anticipated rise in subscriber migration from 4G to 5G services over the coming years. With MNOs like NTT and KDDI already testing 5G networks, we expect commercial 5G launch in 2020 in Japan.

“NTT Docomo will remain the mobile market leader over 2019-2024, due to its strong focus on mobile network modernization and expansion. NTT is working with satellite equipment manufacturing company Gilat Satellite Networks for LTE satellite backhaul to create robust network coverage and expand its LTE footprint. The company is also focusing on developing new 5G use cases for industrial applications.”