Apac cell base 797.8 million in 2007, Indian share 8.7 percent

While there seems to be no end to the bloodbath in the Indian mobile phone market, a recent Gartner-Dataquest report indicates that the growth in the Indian cellular market would continue to be on an upswing. While China continued to lead the

Asia Pacific pack and was home to 47.7 percent of the region's total cellular connections, the net new cellular connections in other Asia Pacific regions like Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan have already peaked in 2002.

Gartner-Dataquest expect China's share to rise and touch 52 percent in 2007. "Cellular operators Asia Pacific regions other than India and China will be compelled to seek out new revenue streams," said Foong King Yew, Principal Analyst for cellular communications at Gartner, adding that these mature markets offer good prospects for mobile data. "Mobile data contribution

to cellular services revenue in these markets are all projected to exceed 26 percent by 2007," he said.

The report also suggests that newer handset models with enhanced features-color screen, MMS, embedded camera, location tracking technology, and Java support-and the introduction of faster cellular networks like EDGE, W-CDMA, and CDMA2000 1X EV-DO, complete with new applications would lay the foundation for the uptake of mobile data in these geographies.

According to Kobita Desai, Principal Analyst Gartner India, "With the cost of service and entry barriers go down, the India cellular market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 39 percent to notch up a base of 70 million subscribers by 2007." The report also suggested that prepaid continues to establishes significant traction and remains the core acquisition tool amongst all operators. However, it cautions that with the dipping ARPU, time has come for all players to do a serious introspection towards profitability of the business as well.

The Gartner research also indicates that the number of cellular connections in Asia Pacific will increase to 797.8 million by 2007 while cellular services revenue will touch $ 142.9 billion. According to the report, mobile data revenue in 2002 constituted 12.1 percent of total cellular services revenue-up from 8.8 percent in 2001. In 2007, mobile data is expected to contribute 26.6 percent of total services revenue. Prepaid connections constituted 76.0 percent of net new cellular connections in 2002 making up for 43.4 percent of total cellular connections-up from 32.9 percent in 2001. The research and advisory firm also expects prepaid connections to garner 65.8 percent of the total cellular connection share by 2007.

Cyber News Service