Skip to main content

Ten Telecom Trends in Asia-Pacific Region


Pyramid Research, at its second annual Asia-Pacific Telecom Summit, presented 10 key trends that will take place in the Asia-Pacific telecom sector during 2008.

1. Subscriber growth -- Indonesia's broadband market will have the highest growth rate in Asia at 45 perccent per year for the next five years, leading the region's subscriber growth. China, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan will hold 80 percent of Asia's mobile subscribers in 2012, when regional subscriptions total 2.2 billion. Expect higher churn, less revenue, and consolidation in 2008 in developed markets. Low ARPUs will facilitate a transition to IMS.

2. Mobile data -- Asia-Pacific mobile data revenues will almost triple over the next five years to $110 billion, but increased broadband penetration and flat-rate plans will create significant threats to this growth. The mobile data market will grow, but the spending per user will start to decrease as broadband becomes more available in emerging markets.

3. Mobile advertising -- Competition from free advertising models will serve as a litmus test for future business models in the region.

4. WiMAX -- The scale of WiMAX deployment remains elusive in the region. Market activities in the U.S., Japan, and Korea will determine the ultimate role the technology will play in the pre-4G environment.

5. IPTV -- Despite healthy take-up of IPTV in markets such as Hong Kong, Western Europe, and Korea, profitability with remain elusive. For established operators like PCCW (Hong Kong) and Telefonica (Spain), 2008 will be a crucial year.

6. Handset devices -- China, India, and parts of Southeast Asia will be the few remaining markets driven by organic handset device growth in the Asia-Pacific region. Expect higher churn, less revenue, and consolidation in 2008 in developed markets.

7. Capital expenditures -- Capex by the top 15 global mobile network operators will reach $71 billion in 2007 and gradually decrease by 2 percent per year. Like the number of mobile subscribers, Capex has peaked in most markets. Despite high profitability, emerging market operators must further reduce capex and opex spending as ARPUs dip below $5. Vendors will rely less on large legacy accounts and increasingly look to markets like India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.

8. Mergers and acquisitions -- M&A opportunities will be limited in the region, and multiple bidders will drive up prices quickly. While diversification is important, beware of overbidding and regulatory issues in emerging markets.

9. Convergence -- fixed-mobile content convergence will be a driver of merger and acquisition activities. The entrance of telecom operators into the convergence space, however, has driven up the price of content, and expensive content can quickly ruin margins.

10. Mobile virtual network operators -- Despite some major failures in the MVNO space, Pyramid Research still sees a niche for the business model. Above all, consumers are price-sensitive, and handsets are crucial. They predict global MVNO subscribers will reach 129 million by 2011.

Popular posts from this blog

Digital Talent Demand Exceeds Supply in Asia-Pac

Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul

Mobile Device Market Still Awaiting Recovery

The mobile devices market has experienced three years of unpredictable demand. The global pandemic, geopolitical pressures, supply chain issues, and macroeconomic headwinds have hindered the sector's consistent growth potential. This extremely challenging environment has dramatically affected both demand and supply chains. It has led to subsequent inflationary pressures, leading to a worsening global cost of living crisis suppressing growth and confidence in the sector. In tandem, mobile device industry stakeholders have become more cautious triggering market uncertainties. Mobile Device Market Development Operating under such a backdrop, the development of mobile device ecosystems and vendor landscapes have been impacted severely. Many of these market pressures persisted throughout 2022 and now into 2023, borne chiefly by the smartphone market. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, worldwide smartphone shipments in 2022 declined 9.6 percent Year-over-Year

Global Digital Business and IT Consulting Outlook

Across the globe, CEOs and their leadership teams continue to seek information and guidance about planned Digital Transformation initiatives and the most effective enterprise organization change management practices. Worldwide IT and Business Services revenue will grow from $1.13 trillion in 2022 to $1.2 trillion in 2023 -- that's a 5.7 percent year-over-year growth, according to the latest market study by International Data Corporation (IDC). The mid-term to long-term outlook for the market has also increased -- the five-year CAGR is forecast at 5.2 percent, compared to the previous 4.9 percent. Digital Sevices & Consulting Market Development IDC has raised the growth projection despite a weak economic outlook, because of vendor performances across 2022, growth indicators from adjacent markets, increased government funding, and inflation impacts. The actual 2022 market growth was 6.7 percent (in constant currency), which was 87 basis points higher than forecast last year, alth