2011 Asia Mobile Operators - July

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Last updated: 6 Jul 2011 Update History

Report Status: Archived

Report Pages: 397

Analyst: Paul Budde

Publication Overview

The report has gathered together a selection of information about each of these many operators. The range of information presented in the text, and where appropriate in tables, includes:

  • brief history of the company;
  • corporate and business structure;
  • subscriber growth;
  • some information on financial performance;
  • market position.

It is noted that the information provided varies from market to market and operator to operator, depending very much on the availability of statistics and corporate reports.

In some markets we also provide an overall review of the market in which we find these operators; this overview includes such statistical information as market share and Average Revenue per User (ARPU) if available. Within the background information we have also reported on the mergers and acquisition that have been part of a transformational market.

The countries covered in this report include: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Georgia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.

Researchers:- Peter Evans, Lisa Hulme-Jones
Current publication date:- July 2011 (8th Edition)

Executive Summary

Asia - a diverse market verging on 3 billion subscribers and surging growth in the developing economies

This market report provides a wide-ranging review of mobile operators across the Asian region. The overview covers around 170 operators that were to be found in Asia in 2011.

There was a combined total of just over 2.6 billion mobile subscribers being served by these operators going into 2011 and with an annual growth rate of around 20% the region can be expected to top 3 billion mobile subscribers by year end.

The list of operators ranges from the giant China Mobile with close to 600 million subscribers right through to a number of small operators with only a few thousand subscribers each. It is noted that of the region’s operators just 15 of these (see Table below) have a combined share of around 70% of the regional mobile market. BuddeComm’s overview of operators in the region does not claim to present an exhaustive list of licensed operators but it certainly is indicative of the breadth and variety of operator to be found in the region. It also reflects the highly competitive nature of the mobile sector in this region.

The focus of this report is on the operators within the individual national markets. Of course, in addition to these individual operators there are those companies such as SingTel, Vodafone, Hutchison and Axiata (formerly Telekom Malaysia International) that have built a substantial presence around the region through their shareholdings in operators in multiple markets. This aspect of these corporations is not discussed in any detail but is mentioned in passing in the country by country review.

Table below shows the top 15 operators as ranked by subscribers at December 2010. The list has remained relatively stable over the last year or so. Compared to the top 15 at the end of 2009, Japan’s KDDI has dropped off the list and India’s Tata has come in at number 9 on the table.

Top 15 mobile operators in Asia (by subscribers) – December 2010

Rank

Operator

Country

Subscribers

(million)

1

China Mobile

China

584.0

2

China Unicom

China

167.4

3

Bharti

India

152.5

4

Reliance Communications

India

125.7

5

Vodafone Essar

India

124.3

6

Telkomsel

Indonesia

94.0

7

China Telecom

China

90.5

8

BSNL

India

86.7

9

Tata Teleservices

India

84.2

10

Idea/ Spice

India

81.8

11

Viettel

Vietnam

60.0

12

NTT DoCoMo

Japan

57.2

13

Smart Communications

Philippines

45.6

14

Indosat

Indonesia

44.3

15

PMCL

Pakistan

33.5

(Source: BuddeComm based on industry data)

While the overall region growth rate was over 20% in 2010, Table below highlights a selction of countries where growth rates reached over 30% and in North Korea’s case, over 250%. These markets are typically the smaller developing economies that are finally seeing their respective growth surges as they reach the turning point on the ‘S-curve’. Although India is experiencing a similar growth surge at this stage, it is its own special case being such a huge market (population 1.2 billion) with the growth being driven by a sophisticated telecom regulatory regime on the back of the booming Indian economy. Led by India, which was still growing at more than 40% by April 2011, many of these markets will see similar growth through 2011.

Top 10 growth markets in Asia – December 2010

Rank

Country

Subscribers (millions)

December 2010

Annual growth

(2009-2010)

1

North Korea

0.36

273.4%

2

Turkmenistan

3.30

65.0%

3

Nepal

9.26

46.5%

4

Cambodia

8.98

46.3%

5

India

737.96

45.0%

6

Laos

3.40

39.9%

7

Myanmar

0.95

36.5%

8

Bangladesh

73.00

32.7%

9

Azerbaijan

9.40

30.0%

10

Tajikistan

5.60

27.0%

(Source: BuddeComm based on industry data)

With the progressive opening up of markets to more competition, we have seen the licensing of more and more operators in the various countries of the region. One phenomenon in Asia has been the granting of a significant number of mobile operator licences in what have been regarded as smaller markets, ie with relatively low populations as well as low income per capita. We have seen this occur for example in Cambodia, Laos and Georgia. Cambodia has been the standout market in this regard; with the licensing of Vimpelcom in 2009 this market had nine mobile operators for a country whose population was just under 15 million and GDP per capita was less than US$800. The market in Vietnam also became more competitive in 2009 with the arrival of the VimpelCom-backed GTEL-Mobile, the number of operators in Vietnam jumping to seven as a result. No doubt markets like Cambodia and Vietnam will need to go through some form of market rationalisation in the future. In fact this process has already started in Cambodia; the start of 2011 saw two of the operators (Applifone and Latelz) merge, thereby dropping the number of players to eight.

There are only a handful of countries that still cling to a single state-owned incumbent structure today. Typically markets are characterised by a number of operators in each market competing on price, service quality, service offering and other market areas to win market share, build customer bases and healthy businesses. We have seen markets like India where as already noted some rather complex licensing systems saw dozens of operators enter the market; this was followed by a period of market rationalisation, which it is generally agreed ultimately produced a highly effective commercial environment. Similar processes have taken place right across the region.

Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may not be for the current year.

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