Asia dominates growth in mobile.
Mobile markets in Asia have continued experiencing rapid growth during 2009, despite many countries close to or over the 90% penetration mark. This has resulted in the Asia region being home to the fastest growing telecommunications markets in the world. Excluding the highly penetrated markets, growth has been in excess of 20% across the remaining markets, with average annual growth being well over the 30% mark. This is particularly relevant in India and China where monthly net additions are regularly in excess of the 10 million subscriber mark. These two countries alone account for over 22% and 35% overall market share in the Asia-Pacific region respectively; or a massive 57% combined.
There is still room for substantial growth. Markets with large populations and relatively low penetration rates, such as India, China, Philippines, Pakistan, Vietnam and Indonesia, will continue to grow at a rapid rate. In the more mature markets such as Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, mobile numbers will rise less than 5%. Growth is being driven by various factors, including government investment to drive the economy; infrastructure building after years of neglect or fixing the after-effects in war torn countries, and also major foreign investment.
In the developing economies quick and easy mobile uptake is the preferred, and often only, option for subscribers, exacerbated by low fixed-line deployments. These countries also offer investors the promise of continued growth of the mobile infrastructure and subscriber numbers. While subscriber growth and market share is important in the developing economies, there comes a point where the venture must result in profits.
Operators still face the huge challenge of trying to prevent ARPU slide as mobile services spread to poorer parts of the population. To an extent, a large customer base will help to offset low spend but it is also hoped that new non-voice services will help to drive revenue. Operators are developing mobile services such as mobile banking, remittance payments, and mobile health services that take advantage of a lack of access by the poor to social infrastructure such as banks and hospitals.
Asia – mobile subscribers, annual change ranked by penetration rate – June 2009
| Country |
Subscribers (thousand) |
Annual change |
Penetration |
| Macau | 1,050 | 23% | 216% |
| Singapore | 6,630 | 6% | 149% |
| Hong Kong | 9,750 | 8% | 133% |
| Maldives | 410 | 19% | 130% |
| Brunei Darussalam | 440 | 20% | 109% |
| Taiwan | 24,910 | 7% | 106% |
| Malaysia | 28,540 | 14% | 105% |
| South Korea | 47,430 | 5% | 99% |
| Thailand | 63,800 | 11% | 99% |
| Vietnam | 86,500 | 72% | 97% |
| Kazakhstan | 15,100 | 19% | 97% |
| Georgia | 3,700 | 23% | 86% |
| Japan | 108,490 | 5% | 85% |
| Philippines | 73,600 | 18% | 81% |
| Armenia | 2,500 | 18% | 81% |
| Azerbaijan | 6,400 | 21% | 77% |
| Kyrgyzstan | 4,000 | 38% | 74% |
| Mongolia | 1,810 | 25% | 68% |
| Sri Lanka | 12,600 | 34% | 65% |
| Indonesia | 140,300 | 29% | 60% |
| Pakistan | 94,700 | 7% | 56% |
| Tajikistan | 3,600 | 48% | 53% |
| Uzbekistan | 14,600 | 64% | 52% |
| China | 673,200 | 15% | 50% |
| Bhutan | 330 | 83% | 49% |
| Afghanistan1 | 10,500 | 124% | 36% |
| India | 414,700 | 52% | 35% |
| Cambodia | 4,500 | 44% | 31% |
| Bangladesh | 47,200 | 11% | 29% |
| Laos | 1,700 | 44% | 28% |
| Turkmenistan | 1,400 | 123% | 28% |
| Nepal | 5,400 | 57% | 18% |
(Source: BuddeComm based on Global Mobile data)
Note: 1December 2008
This Asia market publication covers 35 countries in North, South, South East and Central Asia. The theme of the report is mobile deployment and development, particularly focusing on voice application for mobile use.
For detailed information, table of contents and pricing see: Asian – Mobile Voice Market
