Mobile Drives Internet Access Revenue in More than 75% of Countries by 2020

There was a time when the only way a person could get Internet access was through a fixed network connection.

By 2020, mobile will account for more than half of all of Internet access revenue in more than 75 percent of countries, researchers at PwC now predict.

That is a safe prediction. Some analysts suggested mobile Internet access revenues already had surpassed fixed network Internet access revenues as early as 2013 or 2014.

That fixed access revenues do even that well is a function of the typical difference in average revenue per account, in mobile and fixed realms.

A fixed account routinely generates an order of magnitude more gross revenue than a single mobile account. The other issue is that mobile Internet access accounts represent "one account per person" dynamics, while fixed accounts represent "one account per location" dynamics.

Total global Internet access revenue will increase at a 6.8 percent compound annual growth rate, reaching global levels of about US$634.8bn in 2020.

Between 2015 and 2020, 13 countries, mostly emerging markets, will see double-digit revenue growth rates.

In sum, more than 1.3 billion people will start paying for mobile Internet access for the first time, bringing the total number of global subscribers to 3.8 billion.

Just as important, by 2020, 54 percent of mobile Internet connections globally will be high-speed (delivering 30 Mbps or higher), while a further 42 percent will be capable of medium-speed service between 4 and 30 Mbps.