The global economic downturn had little impact on the fast growth mobile markets of South Asia and the maritime countries of Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines). Led by India's 52% annual growth, subscriptions in the region rose 31% in 2009, noted Strategy Analytics.
Despite lower average revenue per user (ARPU), service revenues in the region increased by 11%, five times the global average. They are forecast to grow at an average of 5% per year through 2015. "There is a lot of untapped demand in the area," notes Tom Elliott, Director of EMCS. "Price cutting and per-second billing from operators like Tata and Bharti Airtel are making mobile service affordable for a lot of new customers."
Serving these new customers profitably will be a challenge for operators. "With more new customers coming from rural areas and smaller cities, ARPU will fall while building out infrastructure and distributing handsets will be more expensive," according to Rahul Gupta, India Senior Manager for EMCS. Operators will have to look for efficiencies anywhere they can, their report points out, including sharing towers and other infrastructure with competitors.
Article published on 12th May 2010
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