Asia Mobile Infrastructure and Mobile Broadband: Ken Research
Asian mobile broadband market continues
to grow strongly
With 3.9 billion mobile subscribers and over 50% of the mobile
subscribers in the world, spread across a diverse range of markets, the region
is already rapidly advancing in the adoption of mobile broadband services.
Mobile broadband as a proportion of the total Asian mobile broadband subscriber
base, has increased from 2% in 2008 to 18% in 2013, 27% in 2014, 33% in 2015
and 37% in 2016. Thus mobile broadband subscribers now account for over one
third of all mobile subscribers in Asia.
Growth across the region in high
speed access to the internet by means of mobile broadband services has been
largely driven by highly competitive markets combined with the preparedness of
the customer to embrace new generation mobile technologies. With 3G, 3G+ and 4G
platforms extensively covering the region, mobile broadband services have
already become well established. The rapid take up has been underpinned by
increasingly cheaper smartphone prices and lower airtime tariffs combining to
support even wider adoption.
A major shift from mobile voice to
mobile data continues across most markets in Asia. The more highly developed
markets in the region, such as Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and
Taiwan, have seen their mobile networks strongly driven by mobile data
services. They have positioned themselves well to exploit mobile data and
broadband wireless opportunities and lead the rest of the region into the next
generations of mobile applications.
The mobile
broadband subscriber base across all of Asia continues to grow strongly. The
total number of mobile broadband subscribers has increased from 1.12 billion in
2014 to 1.41 billion in 2015 and 1.6 billion in 2016. Although the rate of
increase of mobile broadband subscribers has subsided as the initial rapid
rollout of services has slowed down, the growth rate is still reasonably
strong, implying that there is still significant growth opportunity left in the
market over the next five years to 2021, especially in the less developed Asian
markets that are still predominately dependant on voice networks for mobile
services.
MOBILE BROADBAND
With the
two mobile operators, Dhiraagu and Wataniya, launching 3G+ offerings in
2009/2010, there has been rapid expansion of mobile broadband services in the
Maldives. By mid-2015 mobile broadband dominated the internet market in terms
of subscriber numbers and growth rate.
MOBILE INFRASTRUCTURE
Digital
networks
3G
The mobile operator Wataniya
launched a commercial 3G network in 2008. The company also soft launched a 3.5G
High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) network. It progressively offered additional
new generation services including Wataniya Mobile Broadband, Wataniya Mobile
Video Surveillance and Wataniya Mobile TV services. The ‘Wataniya Broadband
(3G+)’ service was launched in 2009.
After Wataniya successfully
transitioned to the Ooredoo brand in 2013, the operator made significant strides.
By September 2013 Ooredoo Maldives had extended its 3.5G HSPA+ network to the
island of Kaafu Dhiffushi in line with the network modernisation plan launched
in July. The HSPA+ network now covers about of the population.
Dhiraagu launched its 3G service,
branded ‘3G plus’, in 2010, and quickly provided coverage across a significant
proportion of the Maldives.
Dhiraagu
had expanded coverage of its 3G network to all inhabited islands by the end of
2015.
LTE
The two mobile operators have made
good progress in expanding their LTE services. Dhiraagu launched LTE using
spectrum in the 1800MHz band in October 2014, and by January 2015 the service
was available in the island of Fuvahmulah and Addu City, the country’s second
largest city. In addition to these two new locations, network coverage extended
to Malé City, Villingili, Hulhumale’, Ibrahim Nasir International Airport,
Villingilli, Thinadhoo, Kulhudhufushi, Naifaru. In April 2016 LTE services were
extended to the island of Dhidhdhoo. By August 2016 the operator’s LTE network
provided population coverage.
The
network initially supported download speeds of up to s, with customers
experiencing average data rates of between s and s. In late 2015 Dhiraagu
launched an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network using carrier aggregation (CA)
technology (utilising its concessions in the 1800MHz and 2600MHz bands), which
improved download speeds to /s downlink and s uplink.
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Ken Research
Ankur Gupta, Head Marketing & Communications
query@kenresearch.com
+91-124-4230204
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