Asia presents a massive presence in the global mobile and broadband markets.
The region owns close to 50% of the world’s mobile subscribers. And when it
comes to the development of broadband internet Asia makes a strong claim to be
leading the world. On the back of the mobile and broadband market segments and
their respective capabilities, Asian nations have been busy building a
formidable alliance with the digital economy.
Following more than a decade of strong growth, mobile markets across Asia
continued to expand during 2012 and into 2013. By the start of 2012 there was a
total of around 2.7 billion mobile subscribers in the region and with annual
growth running at close to 15% the numbers were estimated to have hit 3 billion
by end 2012. With some markets saturating and the impact of the shaky global
economy still being felt, it is not surprising that the growth rate has slowed
somewhat over the last year or so. This is after a period where annual mobile
subscriber growth rates in Asia had been well in excess of 50%.
Overall regional penetration had reached an estimated 72% coming into 2013;
although this figure is impressive in a region where the population was around
4.2 billion, it nevertheless suggests that there is still more room for
subscriber growth across Asia. By early 2013 many countries in Asia had mobile
penetration levels in excess of 100% and a growing number had penetrations over
150%; two (Macau and Hong Kong) even had mobile penetrations in excess of 200%.
Not surprisingly, the Global Financial Crisis caused some caution in mobile
markets across the region for a year or two, but after a pause the momentum has
quickly picked up again. The business emphasis has shifted from general
subscriber growth to value added and mobile broadband. This shift is reinforced
by the recent action of operators to remove inactive subscribers from their
databases, the most compelling example of this during 2012 being in India’s
huge mobile market.
Particularly relevant in the context of rapidly growing markets that still have
some further room for expansion are the two giant markets of India and China
where monthly net additions have regularly been close to 10 million
subscribers. These two countries alone account for over 32% and 28% overall
market share in the Asia region respectively; or a massive 60% combined. With
China and India leading the way, Asia will continue to grow its mobile
subscriber numbers on the back of those other markets in the region with large
populations and relatively low penetration rates such as the Philippines,
Pakistan and Indonesia.
In the developing economies, quick and easy mobile uptake has for a long
time been the preferred, and often the only, option for subscribers, given the
low levels of fixed-line deployments. In order to prevent ARPU slide in these
markets, operators are offering value added mobile services such as mobile
banking, remittance payments and mobile health services that take advantage of
lack of access by the poor to social infrastructure such as banks and
hospitals. As a consequence of these mobile-based services, the digital economy
is alive and well in many of the emerging markets across Asia.
In the meantime, the developed markets in the region, such as Japan, South
Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, have positioned themselves well to
exploit mobile data and broadband wireless opportunities and lead the rest of
the region into the next generations of mobile applications. In fact, through
the leadership of these markets Asia makes a strong claim to be setting the
global benchmark when it comes to the development of mobile broadband internet
access.
The rate of adoption of mobile broadband started increasing rapidly across
Asia with the overall increase in mobile penetration combined with networks
being progressively upgraded to next generation platforms. The initial wave of
3G services took a while before it saw any substantial growth in wireless data
services across the wider regional markets; however, as 3G moves towards 4G and
as speeds increase, as service improves and as content providers offer more,
the market has finally developed considerably momentum. In South Asia, in
particular, more people own a mobile phone than a PC, giving the delivery of
mobile data services huge potential there.
Although official statistics were not available for overall mobile broadband
in the region, it was estimated that mobile broadband penetration was around
14% by end-2012; this represented 585 million mobile broadband subscribers; two
of Asia’s markets – South Korea and Singapore – had more mobile broadband
subscribers than population coming into 2012; Japan was not far behind on 90%
mobile broadband penetration at the time.
The 3G licensing process and the progressive launch of 3G services in Asia
is already well advanced. However, a few countries had been particularly slow
in opening up their 3G markets. But by 2012 the last significant player to
embrace 3G, the recalcitrant Thailand, was finally making substantial progress
along this path. By 2012 many markets – the regulators and the operators - had
started turning their attention to 4G / Long Term Evolution (LTE) as the next
step in delivering quality mobile broadband access to users.
The energetic expansion of mobile broadband was certainly more of a
phenomenon in the developed economies of the region, but most of the relatively
poorer developing countries of the region have been increasingly adopting
mobile broadband at a rapid rate. The choice of technology platforms used to
deliver the service varies considerably across the region.
For more information see – Asia- Mobile Communications Statistics (tables only)
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