Category
Communications
Global communications spending is projected to grow from USD 1.5T in 2026 to USD 2.3T by 2035 as the next billion digital consumers come online, city by city.
USD 1.5T
Spending in 2026
USD 2.3T
Spending in 2035
1B+
New digital consumers by 2030
The most comparable category
Communications is the one basket where a consumer in Lagos and a consumer in Lisbon buy broadly the same thing.
That comparability makes it the cleanest global growth signal we publish. Device and connectivity spend maps almost directly onto income thresholds, which means it can be forecast with unusual precision.
The next billion
More than a billion people cross the connectivity affordability threshold before 2030.
They do not arrive evenly. Growth concentrates in a defined set of cities in South Asia, Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. We identify those cities and size the spend they unlock, tier by tier.
Device versus service
Hardware spend spikes at entry; service spend compounds for a decade afterwards.
Separating one-off device purchases from recurring service revenue is essential to modelling lifetime value in emerging markets. Our data splits the two across every market we cover.
Why it matters
The next billion digital consumers are being added right now, and the growth is not evenly distributed - it's city-level.
Category stat
2.3T USD
Category size by 2035
Communications
What's inside
Category detail, done properly
- Mobile services, broadband, devices, postal
- Digital-consumer penetration curves by city
- Generation-specific device spending
- Emerging-market deep coverage
Related categories
Explore adjacent spending
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Communications
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