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Latin America is leading other regions in mobile revenue growth, according to a newly released report by ABI Research (News - Alert).

Findings of the report indicates that Latin America outperformed other regions in mobile revenue growth for the period 1Q 2010 to 1Q 2011 and grew at 17% in terms of total aggregate service revenue.

North America achieved just 8.9% growth in comparison, says ABI that attributes this great increment in the mobile revenues to increased subscriptions and ARPU.

Latin America experienced an 11.9% increase in mobile subscribers and achieved a 5.9% increase in ARPU. ABI’s research indicates that most region’s ARPU declined during 1Q 2010 to 1Q 2011.

North America and Western Europe only had meager gains during this period.

Other findings of the report show that revenues from data services have become the new engines of growth for telecommunications operators.

Also, the global average growth rate for data service revenues during the period 1Q 2010 to 1Q 2011 increased by 20.3%.

Latin America took the lead with a 40.3% increase and according to ABI Research, the increased data consumption is driven by increased smartphone adoption as evident from the 153% increase in smartphone shipments in 2010.

“Contrary to popular belief, Latin America is the rising star of the telecommunications market” said research associate Lim Shiyang. “With increasing affluence in South America, subscribers are becoming willing to pay more for better value added services.”

“The high growth rates attained through the widespread adoption of ‘mobility’ into the lifestyles of consumers in Latin America show that people are hungry for these types of mobile services and are willing to spend,” said mobile services practice director Neil Strother.

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