According to ABI Research’s “Global Mobile Subscriber Database” and "Asia-Pacific Mobile Subscriber Market Data," global mobile subscriptions will reach over six billion by the end of this year, and the Asia-Pacific region will account for more than half of the worldwide figure in 2011. Asia-Pacific added nearly one billion connections from two years ago – growth that is fueled by rapid economic development in the region, where increased rollout of mobile network infrastructure, citizen prosperity, and affordability of mobile handsets have encouraged adoption.

Less than 18 percent of the three billion connections in Asia-Pacific are 3G and 4G enabled, but that is expected to change quickly. “Mobile broadband connections will experience rapid growth over the next two years, driven by 3G network rollouts in India and China and 4G deployments in Japan and South Korea,” said ABI Practice Director Dan Shey, in a statement.

China successfully surpassed 100 million 3G subscriptions in September 2011, just 10 percent of its total mobile population. “Subscription growth for the China-developed TD-SCDMA standard has been slow due to lack of compatible handsets, but 16 million new connections over the past two quarters suggest growth is accelerating,” said ABI Research Analyst Fei Feng Seet, in a statement.

3G adoption is expected to ramp up in India as well, where 3G networks went live only last year. India’s largest operator by subscribers, Bharti Airtel, launched early in 2011 and gained three million 3G customers in less than six months of operation. Low-cost smart feature phones are already entering these markets to drive 3G connections among consumers.

The Daily

Subscribe
Thursday–December 12

People

Imagine Communications CEO Tom Cotney announced he’ll retire effective March 31. He’ll stick around, however, as the non-executive chairman of the board, where he’ll support customer commitments, advise

Read the Full Issue
The Skinny is delivered on Tuesday and focuses on the cable profession. You'll stay in the know on the headlines, topics and special issues you value most. Sign Up

Calendar

Apr 16
Cablefax 100 Awards Nominations Open November 13th, 2024.
Full Calendar

Jobs

Seeking an INDUSTRY JOB or hiring for one?
VIEW JOBS

In conjunction with our sister brand, Cynopsis, we are offering hiring managers a deep pool of media-savvy, skilled candidates at a range of experience levels and sectors. The result will be an even more robust industry job board, to help both employers and job seekers.

Contact Carley Ashley, [email protected], for more information about posting a job on the website and our Jobs newsletter, sent twice weekly to 85,000 media professionals.