IDC: COVID-19 to Have Limited Impact on Telco & Pay-TV Spend

Worldwide spending on telecommunications and pay-TV services will reach $1.6 trillion this year, just 0.8 percent lower than 2019, according to International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Telecom Services Tracker.

Telcos are proving to be fairly resilient to the COVID-19 pandemic, IDC reports. While mobile spending will be down slightly in 2020 as a result of lower revenues from roaming charges, less mobile data overages due to stay-at-home measures and slower net additions, fixed-data services spending will rise by 2.9 percent. IDC indicates that pay-TV services will be boosted by the lockdown but spending will be impacted by the pandemic this year.

By region, the Americas will be stable at $623 billion, while AsiaPac will be down 1.4 percent to $465 billion and EMEA will fall by 1.2 percent to $474 billion.

“As the 5G revolution is being put on hold or delayed by the pandemic, the already proven technologies and business cases will keep the ball rolling in these uncertain times,” said Kresimir Alic, research director with IDC’s Worldwide Telecom Services team. “Hosted VoIP/UCaaS, collaboration tools, SD-WAN, IoT, along with network optimization and increased reliability will keep consumers and businesses connected during the tough days of pandemic and global recession.”