Worldwide spending on telecoms and pay TV services is on pace to reach nearly $1.7 trillion this year after growing by 1.7% over 2017, IDC has predicted.
Asia-Pacific is expected to be the second largest region for telecoms and pay TV services in 2017 after the Americas. APAC's market is on track to grow 3.5% this year to $545 billion.
The research firm also expects the total global market to grow 2% in 2018, surpassing the $1.7 trillion mark.
The mobile segment currently represents 52% of the total market, and is tracking for a 2% CAGR over the period between 2017 and 2021.
Fixed data spending meanwhile represents a slimmer 21% of the total market, but is set to grow at a CAGR of 4% as new applications requiring higher bandwidth services become adopted.
The total pay TV services market – covering cable, satellite, IPTV and digital terrestrial TV services – is expected to stay flat over the five-year forecast period, but form an increasingly important part of operators' multi-play service offering. Overall spending on multi-play services is projected to grow 9% this year and 7% in 2018.
Finally, spending on fixed voice services is continuing to shrink, with IDC expecting a negative 6% CAGR over the 2017-2021 forecast period. By the end of this time fixed voice spending is expected to represent less than 10% of the total market.
"The steady growth in the worldwide telecom market is driven by the need for IP services and higher bandwidth services, which are more than offsetting declining legacy telecom services," IDC group VP for worldwide telecoms research Courtney Munroe said.
"Mobility is and will dominate the overall telecom market as users in both developing and developed markets increasingly see mobile services based on 3G, 4G and, in the near future, 5G, as a key component of both personal and business communications."