Telecoms market size: Where growth is coming from in 2024–2028
Global telecoms remains a trillion-dollar engine of the digital economy, but growth is shifting. From 5G and fiber to enterprise services, here’s how the market size is evolving and where the next leg of expansion will come from.
Global market size: steady scale, shifting mix
In the Telecoms sector, The telecoms sector remains one of the largest corners of the global digital economy, with service revenues broadly in the mid-trillion range and a stable low-single-digit growth profile. Mobile operators alone generated roughly $1.1 trillion in revenue last year, according to industry research compiled in the GSMA’s latest Mobile Economy report, which underscores how mobility continues to anchor the sector’s topline according to recent research. When fixed broadband and enterprise connectivity are layered in, total telecom service revenues climb substantially higher, keeping the market’s overall scale and cash generation robust even as competition and regulation compress unit pricing in mature markets.
Yet, the composition of that revenue is evolving. Growth is increasingly skewed toward higher-speed access, enterprise solutions, and platform adjacencies (security, edge computing, IoT), while legacy voice and messaging continue to decline. The sector’s defensiveness—recurring subscriptions and essential infrastructure—remains intact, but investors are tracking where incremental dollars will be earned as traffic surges and pricing power varies by region and segment.
Demand drivers: 5G, fiber, and the traffic flywheel
The data demand story is still accelerating. 5G adoption cleared a major milestone in 2023, with global subscriptions surpassing 1.5 billion and set to expand to several billion later this decade as coverage widens and devices become more affordable, Ericsson’s Mobility Report shows. That adoption wave translates into higher usage per subscriber and new revenue opportunities in fixed wireless access, premium tiers, and enterprise use cases, even as headline ARPU growth remains uneven across markets.
At the same time, the addressable base of connected users continues to rise, underpinning the long-term demand curve. The International Telecommunication Union estimates that 5.4 billion people were using the internet in 2023, leaving a meaningful runway for digital inclusion and mobile broadband upgrades in emerging economies, according to ITU data. Fiber-to-the-home and 5G fixed wireless are expanding household reach, helping operators lift broadband penetration, reduce churn, and bundle services that support a richer revenue mix.