According to the latest edition of ITU’s annual global ICT regulatory report, Trends in Telecommunication Reform 2016 released on Tuesday, April 5, telecommunications operators will invest $144.2 billion between 2014 and 2019 on fibre cable infrastructure to enhance broadband expansion globally.
The ITU report notes that increasing numbers of existing operators, new entrants and financiers are developing alternative funding approaches for broadband network investments.
According to the report, more than 40 operators have launched or are planning LTE-A deployments worldwide with 88 per cent of these operators in developed markets while noting that the rise in consumer data consumption may spur more Wi-Fi investment.
The mobile industry association GSMA predicts between 1 – 2 billion M2M connections by 2020. Some experts believe that the market for IoT devices will grow exponentially, resulting in over $1.7 trillion in value added to the global economy by 2019.
