Europe’s mobile saturation and weakened consumer spending resulted...

Europe’s mobile saturation and weakened consumer spending resulted in a “high single digit” percentage drop in mobile service revenue for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region in 2013, Infonetics Research said Friday. Global mobile service revenue rose by 1 percent for 2013 due to offsetting rises in revenue in other regions, said the industry research firm. The Asia-Pacific region saw revenue rise 5 percent, while the Caribbean and Latin America’s rose 4 percent and North America’s rose 3 percent, Infonetics said. Europe’s declining revenue occurred regionwide, including more competitive markets in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, said Stéphane Téral, Infonetics’ principal analyst-mobile infrastructure and carrier economics. European carriers Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefónica and Vodafone are pushing for the European Commission to allow more consolidation, which may “restore operators’ revenue growth and margins, similar to what we saw in Austria,” Téral said in a news release (http://bit.ly/1lqU2ne).