Tunisia: Operators Leverage Fixed and Data Services to Stabilize Total Market Revenue

Summary The Tunisian telecom market generated $1.5bn (TD2.4bn) in service revenue in 2012, a 1.8% y-o-y growth in local currency. We expect the market to grow at around 3% y-o-y in local currency starting in 2013, reaching $1.7bn (TD2.69bn) in 2017. Key Findings The Tunisian telecom market generated $1.5bn (TD2.4bn) in service revenue in 2012, a 1.8% y-o-y growth in local currency. We expect the market to grow at around 3% y-o-y in local currency starting in 2013, reaching $1.7bn (TD2.69bn) in 2017. Fixed voice, although declining slowly, will remain important in the overall Tunisian telecommunications market. At the same time, mobile voice, despite being the largest revenue-generating segment, will stagnate. Mobile voice services accounted for 71% of all telecom revenue in 2012, but as other subsectors will gain, it is expected to fall to 62% by 2017. In absolute terms we expect it to remain relatively steady, while fixed voice will contract at the faster rate of -3.1% from 2012 to 2017. Voice services will continue to be the main revenue generator for the Tunisian telecom market, with almost 70% of the total telecom market in 2017. Mobile data services will be the fastest-growing segment over the next five years, with a CAGR of 16.7% between 2012 and 2017, generating an estimated revenue of $362m in 2017, up from $167m in 2012. This is driven by mobile data service uptake, currently being marketed aggressively by all three mobile operators. Synopsis NA