Asia’s
mobile subscribers surpassed the 2-billion mark
in 2009
Isabelle Paradis
May 2010
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According to the information released by HOT TELECOM
in its latest report “Asia statistics and
forecast 2005-2014”, there were 2.04 billion
mobile subscribers at the end of 2009 in Asia(1).
This translated into a significant 22.7% growth
over the year.
By the end of 2009, mobile accounted for 79.7%
of all telephone connections in the region, compared
with 60.1% in 2005. The number of mobile subscribers
is forecasted to have grown by an average of 10.6%
to 3.4 billion by the end of 2014 and at that time,
mobile penetration should have reached 94.3%.
China and India are by far the region’s two
largest mobile markets with an estimated 748 million
and 525 million mobile subscribers respectively
at the end of 2009. Together these two countries
generate 62.3% of Asia’s mobile connections.
On the other hand, China and India have some of
the lowest mobile penetrations in the region, standing
at 56.0% and 44.7% respectively. On the other hand
of the spectrum, countries such as Hong Kong and
Singapore enjoy by far some of the highest mobile
penetration rates in Asia and the world with 174.4%
and 137.1% mobile penetration respectively at the
end of 2009.
India and Vietnam have benefited from the highest
levels of mobile subscriber growth in 2009, with
estimated growth rates of 51.4% and 56.1% respectively.
This report, which includes 28 detailed exhibits
and tables on Asia’s telecom market, confirms
that Japan and New Zealand suffered from the region’s
lowest mobile subscriber growth in 2009. “The
economic recession has hit hard in some of the region’s
countries, translating into stagnation in mobile
subscriber growth” HOT TELECOM’s president
Isabelle Paradis said.
Find out more on the region’s fixed, mobile,
Internet and broadband statistics and forecasts
in HOT TELECOM’s new 28-page “Asia telecom
statistics and forecast 2005-2014” report,
which can be purchased online at: http://www.hottelecoms.com/asia-stats.html
(1) For the purpose of this article, the Asia market
consists of the following countries: Australia,
China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, New
Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Pakistan, South
Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam
