Asia Pacific Mobile Observatory 2009
In 2009 the GSMA and A.T. Kearney joined forces to conduct a comprehensive study of the Asia Pacific mobile industry. The study is one of the first to provide analysis of the complete Asia Pacific region; its primary focus is on the countries that account for approximately 99% of the region's mobile penetration.
The study combines market data with insights from many of the region's mobile operators and is a benchmark of the current state of the mobile ecosystem in the region. It provides a platform for communicating the economic scale, social value and future challenges of the mobile sector to regional governments and regulators as well as industry analysts.
The Asia Pacific market
As the world's largest mobile market, the Asia Pacific market has tripled in size since 2003, growing at 26 percent CAGR to reach 1.7 billion connections in 2008. By the end of 2009, the market is expected to reach over 2 billion connections. This success looks set to continue, with connections forecast to exceed 3 billion in 2013, representing almost half of the world's mobile population.
The report highlights that the economic contributions of the Asia Pacific mobile ecosystem (comprising the 17 largest countries in the region) amounts to approximately $368 billion, or 2.82 percent of aggregate GDP. The industry also contributes more than $100 billion in public funding and employs over 10 million people in the region.
The report also analyses the way in which the Asia Pacific mobile market is developing along two paths:
- One of the paths is bringing mobile access to the next 1 billion consumers at the bottom of the pyramid. Currently there are roughly 2 billion consumers in emerging countries (primarily China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh) who still do not have mobile connections. This presents an opportunity for mobile operators to serve a significant untapped market, although doing so will require them to develop innovative business models and relevant products and services.
- The second path relates to advanced mobile users in developed markets, who are continually finding new ways to use mobile phones, fuelled by innovations from mobile operators and the broader mobile ecosystem.
One of the key conclusions of the report is that the answer for bridging the digital divide lies in mobile technologies. Mobile voice communication is currently the only form of voice communication for many people in Asia Pacific and this will continue to be the case in future. With the continued investment and roll out in mobile broadband networks and the cost benefits of mobile networks over fixed, it is likely that mobile will also be the primary form of data communications and rich internet access for the majority of people in the Asia Pacific.
With regard to environmental sustainability, the study found that the mobile industry is making good progress. Mobile operators and vendors are helping to mitigate the effects of climate change by reducing emissions and finding new ways to improve energy efficiency. Examples include designing low-energy base stations powered by renewable energy, sharing infrastructures, and reducing device life-cycle emissions. The industry is also acting as a catalyst for other sectors to further reduce emissions through machine-to-machine (M2M) mobile technologies that deliver "smart solutions".
The report also emphasises the critical role that must be played by regulators. It offers four key recommendations for regulators wishing to support the further development of the mobile industry in the region:
- Provide transparent, predictable and consultative regulatory regimes
- Increase penetration by reducing mobile-specific taxation and fees
- Provide incentives that increase universal access
- Review spectrum management policies and accelerate harmonised allocation.
