Chetan Sharma, who runs a boutique telecom market research firm, recently released his analysis of the Global Wireless Data Market. It has tidbits on the mobile voice market also.
Some extracts:
- The global service revenues for the year (2007) touched $700 billion, the data service revenues were more than $120 billion.
- China signed its 500 millionth subscription, and both India (in feb 08) and the US crossed the 250 million subscription mark. India in sheer numbers is now larger than US market. The majority of China and India today are still voice - with many prepaid subscriptions.
- US surpassed Japan as the most valuable mobile data market in service revenue with US adding $24.5B vs. $23.2B for Japan in 2007 mobile data service revenues. China with $12.5B was ranked number 3.
- Both Japan and Korea continue to expand their 3G base with both reporting over 75-80% penetration.Western Europe and US are approximately at 25% 3G penetration (Italy being the exception reaching 40%).China has postponed its 3G decision for the umpteenth time and has been having technical and political problems to get something in place before the 2008 Olympics. India is going through its 3G spectrum policy but unlike China is likely to resolve the issues in short order.
- On an average, Japan and Korea have over 70-75% of their revenue coming from non-SMS data applications, US around 50-60%, and Western Europe around 20-40%.
- While the talk of “Open Access” and “Open Platform” consumed much of North America, it barely registered a decibel elsewhere. Several significant events including 700 MHz Auction, Android, and Verizon’s “Open Network” initiative elevated the consternation in the ecosystem.
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