Telecom Network Operators: 4Q22 Market Review

Telecom Network Operators: 4Q22 Market Review

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 4Q22. In 2022, telcos represented $1.78 trillion (T) in revenues (-6% YoY), $257 billion (B) in labor costs (-5% YoY), and $322B in capex (-1% YoY). They employed approximately 4.572 million people as of December 2022, down 2.1% from the prior year.

Telcos turned cautious around spending on capex in the latest quarter amid stalled revenue growth and macro pressures. Telco investments declined for the second straight quarter, falling 5.1% on a YoY basis to post $87.9B in 4Q22. The decline in the latest quarter also knocked down annualized capex to $322.1B in 4Q22, from the peak of $330.0B two quarters ago. Despite the collapse, annualized capital intensity reached a new all-time high of 18.1% in 4Q22. A few countries are just starting to deploy deploy 5G networks, notably India; many more continue to scale up 5G to reach mass market coverage, and deploy fiber to support fixed broadband and to connect all the new radio infra (including small cells) needed for 5G. There is also a growing number of stand-alone 5G core networks, which is helping the cloud providers improve their penetration into the telco sector.

The information contained in this report was obtained from both primary and secondary research, supplemented by the expertise of MTN Consulting's analyst team.

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