This is the first growth after four quarters of falls, Strategy Analytics said in its telecom revenue analysis report called Wireless Operator Strategies report “4G and China Drive Global Mobile Revenue Back to Growth.”

China telecom market provided the boost to global numbers. Other telecom markets such as Europe also saw improving trends with uplift from greater 4G LTE adoption.

Strategy Analytics has tracked the financial and operational performance of 246 wireless operators, which collectively account for 80 percent of the world’s cellular subscriptions.

Revenue of telecoms in Central and Latin America fell 6.9 percent – recording the biggest revenue declines in Q3.

Venezuela’s rapidly deteriorating exchange rate contributed to most of this decline, with the rest of the region down 0.2 percent.

Revenue of telecoms in the Middle East and Africa region rose 2.7 percent, the highest growth in Q3 — boosted in particular by strong data and voice performance in South Africa.

Global mobile data traffic increased 71 percent in Q3 2015, with non-SMS data accounting for 43 percent of service revenue.

“4G remains an important catalyst for revenue growth and recovery in the mobile market. Delivering a better network experience on increasingly larger-display devices, operators are seeing good data traffic and revenue growth trends enabled by 4G,” said Phil Kendall, executive director, Wireless Operator Strategies.

The telecom report noted that telecom network operators in developing 4G markets are concerned about revenue fall in leading markets such as Japan and South Korea, reflecting the challenges of pushing 4G ARPU uplift right through into the mass market.

Telecomlead.com