Southeast Asia telcos consolidate as 40 GB data demand looms
Smartphone users in the region currently consume over 20 GB of data every month.
The telecom sector in Southeast Asia is turning to consolidation and digital ecosystems as it faces rising data demand and cost pressures, according to Himanshu Sahasrabudhe, director for Southeast Asia at Monitor Deloitte.
“Over the last five years, across our region, there has been a lot of activity in terms of market consolidation,” Sahasrabudhe told the Asian Telecom Summit 2026 in Singapore in February, linking past mergers to future opportunities in investments, partnerships, and growth for telecom players.
Consumer smartphone data usage is already over 20 GB per month and could nearly double to 40 GB per month by 2030, he said.
Sahasrabudhe also noted strong interest in home broadband, including fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and fixed wireless access (FWA).
“Most of the telecom operators are looking at this as the battle for the home,” he said, noting opportunities in smart homes, IoT devices, and digital ecosystems.
Sahasrabudhe highlighted that “almost 1.7 trillion worth of payments will pass through the digital payment system by 2030,” noting interoperability amongst national QR codes across borders, such as Indonesia’s QRIS and Singapore’s PayNow.
Enterprise demand is another key driver. “Most of the companies are looking for how to become AI-native, how to embed AI in their operations, and for that, they’ll require a lot of storage and compute,” Sahasrabudhe said, pointing to a surge in demand for data centers across Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
He added that governments are also emphasising network resilience, sovereign AI, and data residency.
Despite strong demand, Sahasrabudhe said telecom operators face cost pressures. Average revenue per user is stagnating, and competition from over-the-top platforms is intense.
“It really boils down to how do telecom operators then make money? How do they get their return on investment? And that has kind of driven the whole move towards consolidation,” he said.
Recent regional mergers include Indosat in Indonesia (2021), True-DTAC in Thailand, and CelcomDigi in Malaysia. “These mergers show that most markets are now restricting themselves to two or three players,” Sahasrabudhe noted.
Consolidation also extends to mobile and fiber convergence, allowing operators to create scale and unlock synergies. “Almost all mergers have given around 400 to 500 million worth of synergies to the shareholders,” said Sahasrabudhe, noting that these enable reinvestment into infrastructure, cyber, AI, and data centers.
Sahasrabudhe said this approach “is helping, not as a cost-cutting exercise, but rather a growth-focused exercise, because it is allowing us to create a scale that we will be able to play with.”
Enterprise services are becoming a larger focus, with operators providing AI, cybersecurity, cloud, and network slicing, he added.
With consumer revenues plateauing, operators are shifting toward enterprise services offering AI, cybersecurity, cloud, and network slicing, Sahasrabudhe said.
On the consumer side, telecoms are consolidating digital offerings into “super apps” or hyper-ecosystem apps. “Two to three years ago, all the apps started to be consolidated into one,” he said, citing True in Thailand and Telkomsel in Indonesia as examples.
Sahasrabudhe cited the importance of pursuing M&A and complementary partnerships, highlighting Indosat’s mobile-mobile merger, where the company later acquired 350,000 home connections to expand its ecosystem.
He also recommended separating infrastructure and services businesses to enhance market valuation and operational focus.
Additionally, Sahasrabudhe highlighted the need to build enterprise ICT and cloud capabilities to provide connectivity-plus solutions.
He also urged telecoms to embrace AI internally, becoming “customer zero” before selling AI solutions externally.
Moreover, he stressed the importance of developing integrated digital ecosystems for consumers through super apps and converged offerings.
