Mobile service users likely to increase

The number of mobile service subscribers in the Asia-Pacific region outside of Japan is projected to exceed 901 million by 2009 after growing a robust 25.6 percent to 527.3 million last year, an industry monitoring group said yesterday.

For 2005, the number of mobile users is tipped to increase 18.6 percent to 625.5 million, research firm International Data Corp (IDC) said.

The strong growth is expected to translate into an earnings bonanza for telecom service providers with mobile revenues rising to US$109.3 billion in four years' time from US$69.8 billion last year, it said.

Of the 10 regional markets covered, India reported the fastest growth as mobile service users more than doubled to 48 million last year, with the figure projected to rise to 148.77 million in 2009.

China, the Philippines and Thailand, the key contributors behind the region's strong growth last year, will remain among the fastest growing markets, the report said.

In China, mobile users numbered 317.27 million last year and will grow to 535.37 million in 2009, with the Philippines rising to 57.46 million from 32.74 million last year and Thailand up to 39.9 million from 27.14 million.

"India's mobile services market saw an overnight expansion due to the conversion of wireless local loop services to full mobility services under the new universal licensing regime," Alayne Wong, IDC's regional research anager for wireless communications, said in the report.

"Other factors boosting growth in the region include increasing popularity of pre-paid plans as well as continued network expansion in emerging markets, extending the reach of mobile services."

Among other regional markets, IDC said Australian mobile users will rise from 17.86 million last year to 20.78 million by 2009, with Hong Kong going from 7.22 million to 8.31 million and Malaysia from 14.59 million to 22.49 million.

Singaporean users will rise from 3.86 million to 4.66 million over the same period, with South Korea increasing from 36.58 million to 40.48 million and Taiwan from 21.99 million to 22.81 million.