San Diego Takes 3G 1xEV-DO

US : The Asia-Pacific region has bucked the global trend of declining telecom growth for the last several years. The overall pace of mobile user and mobile service revenue growth has remained steady.

Inset is Shiv Putcha, Yankee Group quoted below.

The Yankee Group report, "2003 Asia-Pacific Mobile User and Revenue Forecast Sees Strong Growth for Data," projects the regional user base will grow from 436 million in 2002 to 773 million in 2007, at a CAGR of 12.2 percent through the forecast period. Emerging markets such as India and the surging popularity of prepaid subscriptions will fuel much of this growth.

"The opportunities for growth in Asia continue to come from new network deployments in emerging markets, with a great deal of growth projected for China and India," says Shiv Putcha, Yankee Group Wireless/Mobile Asia-Pacific senior analyst. "However, operators and regulators in the Asia-Pacific region are showing overt caution while unfavorable economic conditions persist. The momentum toward 3G in Asia, for example, has stalled or is being reassessed."

The Yankee Group also projects service revenue will grow from $121 billion in 2002 to $227 billion in 2007, at a CAGR of 13.4 percent. Although voice revenue will be flat, mobile data revenue will grow strongly, at nearly 41 percent CAGR.

The Yankee Group believes, however, that the region has dealt with many of its 3G growth problems and there are positive signs of 3G momentum. Even operators without 3G licenses have announced or are contemplating alternative scenarios, typically involving deployment of EDGE networks.