The rate of adoption of wireless
Internet has started to rise with the overall increase in mobile
penetration together with networks being progressively upgraded to next
generation platforms. While 3G licensing and the ongoing launch of 3G
services in Asia has certainly been promoting the growth of wireless
data services, 3G has also been providing opportunities for both
wireless access and content providers in domestic markets. In South
Asia, in particular, more people own a mobile phone than a PC, giving
the delivery of mobile data services huge potential there.
Mobile data is not a new phenomenon in Asia. Regional public networks
based on Mobitex technology were established in Singapore, Indonesia and
South Korea. Another form of mobile data, the DataTAC network, was made
available in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, with network
trials in South Korea, Japan and China. The DataTAC networks established
in Asia were more extensive than the corresponding networks in either
Europe or the US.
An example of widespread adoption of a particular mobile data service
has been the SMS capability of GSM and other digital cellular
technologies. SMS, which allows the sending and receiving of basic text
messages, became very popular throughout Asia, with remarkable growth
being experienced in the Philippines and Malaysia, as well as in China.
The business plans of the majority of mobile operators have been built
on the assumption that the key to further revenue growth lies in the
ability to offer more Value-Added Services (VAS) and, in particular,
access to the Internet. A number of technologies are competing for the
region's mobile Internet market. In Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea,
and a number of other countries, in an effort to chase this market,
offerings based on the Wireless Application Protocol standard were
tried. Apart from South Korea, however, WAP failed to claim any
significant share of the market. In Japan, by contrast, NTT DoCoMo
launched its i-Mode service and its two rivals SoftBank and KDDI -
launched their own versions of i-Mode with dramatic success, with over
85% of mobile subscribers in Japan logging on from a mobile using one of
these platforms. In fact, mobile subscribers (93 million) accessing the
Internet surpass fixed line users (90 million). Another system that has
supported mobile data, the GPRS, grew out of GSM. Labelled as a 2.5G
technology, it has been adopted in a significant number of Asian
markets.
The widespread adoption of HSDPA, a new generation (3.5G) mobile
telephone protocol, is also noted throughout Asia. It is an evolution of
the WCDMA 3G standard, designed to increase the available data rate by a
factor of 5 or more. In effect, it extends the capabilities of WCDMA in
the same way that EV-DO extended CDMA2000, allowing higher data capacity
(up to 14.4Mb/s). SK Telecom launched a commercial HSDPA network in 25
major cities in South Korea in 2006, offering customers what it claimed
was the world's first commercial HSDPA-enabled mobile handset, the
Samsung SCH-W200. This was followed SmarTone-Vodafone launching a system
in Hong Kong in June 2006, providing a data speed of 1.8Mb/s. Others
have quickly followed.
KTF began rolling out an upgraded HSUPA network in June 2007, for faster
data transmission to attract more users of 3G mobile services. HSUPA
supports upload data rates of up to 5.76Mb/s, which is 15 times faster
than HSDPA, which itself is an advancement of 3G wireless technology.
KTF launched high-speed uplink packet access, or HSUPA, in five major
cities, including the capital Seoul.
SKT also rolled out an HSUPA network and by December 2007 had completed
build-out of what it claimed as the world's first commercial HSUPA
network in Seoul. Initially the network covered two districts of
Gangdong-gu and Songpa-gu in Seoul, and extended it to the entire city
in 2008. Full commercial service started in 2008 when handsets for HSUPA
were released in the market. SKT planned to extend the HSUPA coverage to
23 cities across the nation by the end of 2008 and 84 cities by 2009.
Japan's four main mobile operators, NTT DoCoMo, KDDI (au), Softbank
Mobile and eMobile plan to invest up to ¥1 trillion (US$10 billion)
into so-called 3.9G' mobile services, offering end users the prospect of
even better and faster options than they have today. Known as 3.9G in
Japan, the new networks will use frequencies in the 2,010MHz to 2,025MHz
range for Long-term evolution technology. 3.9G performance is roughly
comparable with fibre-optic networks and from 2010 a number of domestic
carriers intend to utilise their existing 3G infrastructure, on which
the providers spent 5 trillion, to keep 3.9G rollout costs to a minimum.
Wireless broadband in Asia
After a somewhat tentative start, wireless broadband access in its
various forms is starting to take hold in Asia. This has seen a flurry
of activity as operators rush to acquire the necessary frequency
licences. The sector had experienced problems earlier on involving
unreliable equipment and network design faults. These have become things
of the past. The challenge still facing the industry, however, is to
establish viable business models that allow wireless to compete with the
more established service offerings - DSL and cable modem platforms in
the case of fixed wireless broadband and next generation mobile
telephony platforms in the case of mobile wireless broadband.
Wireless broadband systems are expected to eventually become a key
feature of the broadband access landscape across Asia. Apart from WiFi
and WiMAX platforms, wireless technologies include LMDS and MMDS.
For some years now, despite high equipment prices and security issues
inhibiting adoption, wireless broadband services have been appearing in
a piecemeal fashion across the region, notably in airport lounges,
transport hubs and hotels, particularly offering mobile travellers
immediate broadband connectivity.
As with other high technology services, it is the developed economies
that have lead the way in this segment of the telecom market in Asia. At
the same time, however, wireless broadband technologies are certain to
prove increasingly popular in the developing markets as they offer a
powerful means of by-passing the incumbent's infrastructure, especially
the last mile' and also accessing customers where the incumbent's
infrastructure finds it difficult. These possibilities will become even
more attractive as the cost of equipment falls with more roll-outs
occurring and the market demand volume rising. This pattern has already
started to emerge.
While there has been some activity in the providing of WiMAX networks,
the real test will be the advent of mobile WiMAX. The initial roll-out
of mobile WiMAX in Asia has begun but it has been a cautious start. The
technology continues to be strongly supported at this stage of its
development. The big question is whether it will become a mass market
platform or simply satisfy a niche market need.
It should be noted that gathering statistics for broadband subscribers
in Asia has become difficult with the advent of wireless services and
hotspots. One phenomenon that makes it difficult is the practice of
service bundling' by operators. Korea Telecom, for example, had a large
number of WiFi subscribers, approximately two-thirds of whom were
bundled' as subscribers on the operator's DSL service.
Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation
and may not be for the current year. |
