China, India capex, revenue growth outpaces big telcos in West

Emerging markets in China and India are expanding at a dramatically faster rate than more mature markets in Europe and the U.S. with a significant jump in capex and in revenues for 2008 among carriers there, reports Infonetics Research. A declining dollar also has helped their bottom lines.

"(China and India) are still posting double-digit revenue growth in their native currencies which, converted into US dollars, creates a big spike in worldwide carrier revenue as well," said Stéphane Téral, a principal analyst at Infonetics Research.

Infonetics said large service providers' capital intensity (capex:revenue) in Europe and the U.S. is likely to be as low as 12 percent, as the market reaches a plateau this year.

Other significant points from the research include: 

• Worldwide telecom service provider capex rose 7 percent last year to $248.8 billion;
• Revenue rose 10 percent to $1.5 trillion (much of the growth was due to the decline in the dollar); and
• Despite being restricted to mobile services until this year, China Mobile is now the world's eighth largest telco by revenue;

For more:
- See this Infonetics release

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