3G slow or will threaten mobile revenue in Asia

Flying Elephant (compiler 文慧) Strategy Analytics, the US market research firm, said in a recent report that, with new consumer markets being tapped by India's BA (Bharti Airtel) and China Mobile, Mobile phone users in Asian developing countries will continue to grow. However, the growth of mobile income cannot keep up with this pace. It is estimated that 2001-2015, the annual average annual income growth behind the increase of more than 10%.　　If new 3G network services are not added in time, the revenue will stagnate over the next few years. Price competition is one factor driving down income. For example, in an unusually competitive Indian market, the voice call fee for BA is only 1.2 cents per minute, while in neighboring Sri Lanka, operators are forced to push prices down to less than a penny a minute under pressure from the bottom line.　　The move to poorer rural areas also led to lower incomes. "In order to grow, operators have to expand their business beyond cities to rural areas," said Tom Elliott, EMCs's director Tom Elliott. Farmers, however, are certainly not spending as much money on communications as city dwellers do, thereby pulling down service revenues. "For many carriers, including Thai AIS, which currently earns more than 10% of its revenue from SMS data, promoting other businesses outside voice and SMS services is the key to increasing revenue."　　However, due to the many delays in the 3G spectrum auctions, AIS and other Thai operators have been unable to expand their high-speed services beyond a few limited areas. Operators can take seriously the deployment of 3G and subsequent 4G network issues and launch corresponding value-added services, otherwise emerging market operators will struggle to reverse the long-term stagnation of income. ”