Asia-Pacific Driving Growth for CDMA Market
Asia-Pacific (APAC) accounts for 53% of the global CDMA market, which
reached 475 million users at the end of Q3 2008. This is revealed by the
CDMA Development Group (CDG), a trade association with over 140 member
companies. The other competing technology GSM is also witnessing some
explosive growth with over 1.4 billion mobile connections in the Asian
market.
As APAC
operators continue to develop and enhance their core 3G CDMA networks,
CDMA2000 (the 3G technology version of CDMA) subscribership in the
region remains the largest in the world. Also, the operators in the
region are seeing some of the highest wireless data revenues in the
industry, according to CDG.
“The
CDG is committed to helping Asian 3G CDMA operators realize the most
benefits from their core networks,” said Perry LaForge, executive
director of the CDG. “When 3G licensing auctions occur in China and
India next year, more people than ever will be able to take advantage of
CDMA2000 voice and wireless broadband services.”
Over
the past year, the region added more than 47.2 million new subscribers
for CDMA2000. Emerging markets and dynamic new services for developed
markets are key drivers behind CDMA’s strong growth, which includes more
the 5 million new customers in Indonesia over the past 6 months.
According to CDG, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO subscribers grew by over 4 million
during the year, a number that is expected to increase exponentially as
operators in the region deploy more EV-DO Revision A (Rev. A) networks.
Smart Telecom and PCCW recently launched Rev. A services in Indonesia
and Hong Kong, respectively.
Operators in the region also realize significant average revenue per
user (ARPU), particularly for 3G CDMA wireless data ARPU. In Japan,
KDDI’s wireless data ARPU exceeds US$20. In Korea, LG Telecom is seeing
increased data ARPU since launching its popular flat-rate OZ (Open Zone)
mobile broadband service on its EV-DO Rev. A network. The operator has
added more than 400,000 OZ customers since launching the service in
April 2008, and by the end of the year will add more than 10 OZ-enabled
handsets to the market.
In
October 2008, China Telecom launched a CDMA2000 network under the
service banner ‘Surfing,’ to provide Internet services to customers. The
operator aims to have 100 million users by the end of 2009 and supports
an array of CDMA2000 devices.
The CDG
further informs that APAC has also demonstrated proof-of-concept trials
in the CDG’s Open Market Handset (OMH) program. The OMH program is part
of the CDG’s overall Global Handset Requirements for CDMA (GHRC)
initiative, which specifies a common set of requirements based on
standards to procure CDMA2000 devices in an open-device and
open-application environment.
The
ultimate goal is to make handsets generic devices that can be sold on
the “open market” and used in multiple operator networks. Reliance
Communications, TATA Indicom, Bakrie Telecom, Mobile-8 Telecom, Telkom
Flexi, Indosat, CityCell and CAT Telecom have announced trial
conclusions in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Thailand, says CDG.
While
CDMA market is growing, the other parallel technology GSM is spreading
its tentacles across the world. According to
GSM Association (GSMA), which is a
global trade group representing more than 750 GSM mobile operators
across 218 countries and territories of the world, the association's
members represent more than 3 billion GSM and 3GSM connections -- over
86% of the world's mobile phone connections.
According to GSMA,
last year alone has seen more than 400 million new mobile connections
added in the Asian region, taking the total to more than 1.4 billion.
