European Telcos and China Mobile Steer Revenue Uptick, as Capex Downtrend Persists; Industry Headcount Drops to 4.5 Million
This report reviews the growth and development of the telecommunications network operator (TNO, or telco) market. The report tracks a wide range of financial stats for 139 telcos across the globe, from 1Q11 through 4Q23. For the full-year 2023, telcos represented $1.77 trillion (T) in revenues (-0.7% YoY), $263.1 billion (B) in labor costs (3.0% YoY), and $315.1B in capex (-3.6% YoY). They employed approximately 4.50 million people as of December 2023, down 1.5% from the prior year.
Key highlights of the report:
Revenues: Telco topline posted a modest growth of 1.7% on a YoY basis to post $445.3 billion (B) in the latest single quarter ending 4Q23. Revenues for the full-year 2023 were $1,775.8B, down 0.7% YoY over the previous year. In the latest quarter, YoY growth in equipment revenues surpassed service revenues, mainly due to the strong year-end device sales by major telcos such as China Mobile, AT&T, and Deutsche Telekom. At the operator level, five of the top 20 best performing telcos by topline growth for the full year 2023 include America Movil (7.7%), STC (Saudi Telecom) (7.3%), Airtel (5.0%), Telefonica (4.5%), and Orange (4.3%). By the same criteria, the worst telco growth came from AT&T (5.2%), KDDI (-4.6%), SoftBank (-3.5%), NTT (-3.3%), and Verizon (-2.1%) during the same period.
Capex: Capex spending declined by 4.1% on a YoY basis to post $85.9B in the latest single quarter ending 4Q23. Capex for the full-year 2023 was $315.1B, down 3.6% YoY over the previous year. At the operator level, five of the top 20 best performing telcos by capex growth for the full year 2023 include Airtel (34.3%), Comcast (25.5%), Charter Communications (18.5%), KDDI (13.1%), and Telefonica (9.9%). By the same criteria, the worst capex growth came from SoftBank (-20.5%), Verizon (-18.7%), Deutsche Telekom (-18.7%), BT (-15.3%), and Reliance Jio (-10.8%) during the same period. Capital intensity is off the peak: it was 17.7% in 2023, from 18.3% the year prior.
Opex and labor costs: Total opex for the telecom industry in the year 2023 stood at $1,504.8B, a decrease of 1.5% over 2022. Excluding depreciation and amortization (D&A) costs, total opex declined by 1.1% on a YoY basis to record $1,169.5B in the year 2023. One significant element of telco opex is labor costs, which include salaries, wages, bonuses, benefits, and retirement/severance costs. Labor costs grew by 3.0% YoY in 2023, pushing labor costs as a percentage of opex (excluding D&A) up from 21.6% in 2022 to 22.5% in 2023.
Profitability margins: Both EBITDA and EBIT margins witnessed a slight improvement in the year 2023 when compared to 2022 - EBIT margin grew from 14.6% in 2022 to 15.3% in 2023, while EBITDA (operating) margin ended 2023 at 34.1%, as compared to 33.9% in the previous year.
Regional trends: The Americas region managed to sustain its dominance in 4Q23, with 38.0% global share of the total telco market revenues. On a capex basis though, the Asia region finally surpassed the Americas region with 39.6% of the global share in the latest quarter. Europe maintained its lead in the latest quarter as the region with the highest annualized capital intensity, reaching 18.7% in 4Q23.
Table of Contents
- Report Highlights
- Summary
- Market snapshot
- Analysis
- Key stats through 4Q23
- Labor stats
- Operator rankings
- Company Deep-dive & Benchmarking
- Country breakouts
- Country breakouts by company
- Regional breakouts
- Raw Data
- Subs & traffic
- Exchange rates
- Methodology & Scope
- About the Publisher
List of Figures
- TNO market size & growth by: Revenues, Capex, Employees - 1Q19-4Q23
- Regional trends by: Revenues, Capex - 1Q19-4Q23
- Opex & Cost trends
- Labor cost trends: 1Q20-4Q23
- Profitability margin trends: 1Q20-4Q23
- Spending (opex, labor costs, capex): annual and quarterly trend
- Key ratios: annual and quarterly trend
- Workforce & productivity trends: 1Q14-4Q23
- Operator rankings by revenue and capex: latest single-quarter and annualized periods
- Top 20 TNOs by capital intensity: latest single-quarter and annualized periods
- Top 20 TNOs by employee base: latest single-quarter
- TNOs: YoY growth in single quarter revenues
- TNOs: Annualized capital intensity, 1Q16-4Q23
- TNOs: Revenue and RPE, annualized 1Q16-4Q23
- TNOs: Capex and capital intensity (annualized), 1Q16-4Q23
- TNOs: Total headcount trends, 1Q16-4Q23
- TNOs: Revenue and RPE trends, 2011-23
- TNOs: Capex and capital intensity, 2011-23 ($ Mn)
- TNOs: Capex and capital intensity, 1Q16-4Q23 ($ Mn)
- TNOs: Revenue and RPE trends, 1Q16-4Q23
- Top 79 TNOs by total opex, 4Q23
- Top 79 TNOs by labor costs, 4Q23
- TNOs: Software as % of total capex
- TNOs: Software & spectrum spend
- TNOs: Total M&A, spectrum and capex (excl. spectrum)
- Top 79 TNOs by total debt: 2011-23
- Top 79 TNOs by total net debt: 2011-23
- Top 79 TNOs by long term debt: 2011-23
- Top 79 TNOs by short term debt: 2011-23
- Top 79 TNOs by total cash and short term investments ($M): 2011-23
Companies Mentioned
- A1 Telekom Austria
- Advanced Info Service (AIS)
- Airtel
- Altice Europe
- Altice USA
- America Movil
- AT&T
- Axiata
- Axtel
- Batelco
- BCE
- Bezeq Israel
- Bouygues Telecom
- BSNL
- BT
- Cable ONE, Inc.
- Cablevision
- Cell C
- Cellcom Israel
- CenturyLink
- Cequel Communications
- Charter Communications
- China Broadcasting Network
- China Mobile
- China Telecom
- China Unicom
- Chunghwa Telecom
- Cincinatti Bell
- CK Hutchison
- Clearwire
- Cogeco
- Com Hem Holding AB
- Comcast
- Consolidated Communications
- Cyfrowy Polsat
- DEN Networks Limited
- Deutsche Telekom
- Digi Communications
- DirecTV
- Dish Network
- Dish TV India Limited
- DNA Ltd.
- Du
- EE
- Elisa
- Entel
- Etisalat
- Fairpoint Communications
- Far EasTone Telecommunications Co., Ltd.
- Frontier Communications
- Globe Telecom
- Grupo Clarin
- Grupo Televisa
- Hathway Cable & Datacom Limited
- Idea Cellular Limited
- Iliad SA
- KDDI
- KPN
- KT
- Leap Wireless
- LG Uplus
- Liberty Global
- M1
- Manitoba Telecom Services
- Maroc Telecom
- Maxis Berhad
- Megafon
- MetroPCS Communications
- Millicom
- Mobile Telesystems
- MTN Group
- MTNL
- NTT
- Oi
- Omantel
- Ono
- Ooredoo
- Orange
- PCCW
- PLDT
- Proximus
- Quebecor Telecommunications
- Rakuten
- Reliance Communications Limited
- Reliance Jio
- Rogers
- Rostelecom
- Safaricom Limited
- Sasktel
- Shaw
- Singtel
- SITI Networks Limited
- SK Telecom
- Sky plc
- SmarTone
- SoftBank
- Spark New Zealand Limited
- Sprint
- StarHub
- STC (Saudi Telecom)
- SureWest Communications
- Swisscom
- Taiwan Mobile
- Tata Communications
- Tata Teleservices
- TDC
- TDS
- Tele2 AB
- Telecom Argentina
- Telecom Egypt
- Telecom Italia
- Telefonica
- Telekom Malaysia Berhad
- Telenor
- Telia
- Telkom Indonesia
- Telkom SA
- Telstra
- Telus
- Thaicom
- Time Warner
- Time Warner Cable
- TPG Telecom Limited
- True Corp
- Turk Telekom
- Turkcell
- Veon
- Verizon
- Virgin Media
- Vivendi
- Vodafone
- Vodafone Idea Limited
- VodafoneZiggo
- Wind Tre
- Windstream
- Zain
- Zain KSA
- Ziggo
