Asia Mobile Operators
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A BUDDECOMM REPORT ASIA MOBILE OPERATORS 7th Edition Researchers: Peter Evans, Lisa Hulme-Jones Copyright 2010 Published in March 2010 Paul Budde Communication Pty Ltd Tel 02 4998 8144 – Int: 61 2 4998 8144 5385 George Downes Drive Fax 02 4998 8247 – Int: 61 2 4998 8247 BUCKETTY NSW 2250 Email: [email protected] AUSTRALIA Website: www.budde.com.au Asia Mobile Operators Disclaimer: The r eader a ccepts a ll r isks a nd responsibility f or l osses, da mages, costs a nd other c onsequences resulting directly o r i ndirectly f rom u sing this r eport or f rom reliance on any information, opinions, estimates a nd forecasts c ontained herein. T he i nformation c ontained herein ha s been obtained f rom sources believed to be reliable. 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For information regarding permission, please write to: Paul Budde Communication Pty Ltd, 5385 George Downes Drive, BUCKETTY NSW 2250, AUSTRALIA. © Copyright Paul Budde Communication Pty Ltd, 2010 Website: www.budde.com.au Asia Mobile Operators EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This market report provides a wide-ranging review of mobile operators across the Asian region. The overview covers around 170 operators that were to be found in Asia in 2010. There was a combined total of close to 2.1 billion mobile subscribers being served by these operators going into 2010 and this is expected to reach a total of over 2.5 billion by year end. The list of operators ranges from the giant China Mobile with more than 500 million subscribers right through to a number of small operators with only a few thousand subscribers each. It is noted that of the region’s operators just 15 of these have a combined share of around 68% of the regional mobile market. BuddeComm’s overview of operators in the region does not claim to present an exhaustive list of licensed operators but it certainly is indicative of the breadth and variety of operator to be found in the region. It also reflects the highly competitive nature of the mobile sector in this region. The f ocus o f this r eport i s on t he o perators within t he i ndividual national m arkets. Of c ourse, i n addition to these individual operators there are those companies such as SingTel, Vodafone, Hutchison and Axiata (formerly Telekom Malaysia International) that have built a substantial presence around the region through their shareholdings in operators in multiple markets. This aspect of these corporations is not discussed in any detail but is mentioned in passing in the country by country review. The table below shows the top 15 operators as ranked by subscribers at December 2009. The list has remained r elatively s table ove r t he l ast y ear or so. C ompared t o t he t op 1 5 a t t he e nd of 2007, SK Telecom has dropped off the list and Viettel has come in at number 11 on the table. Top 15 mobile operators in Asia (by subscribers) – 2009 Subscribers Rank Operator Country (million) 1 China Mobile China 522.3 2 China Unicom China 147.6 3 Bharti India 118.9 4 Reliance Communications India 96.0 5 Vodafone Essar1 India 90.0 6 Telkomsel Indonesia 76.0 7 BSNL India 63.0 8 Idea Cellular India 57.0 9 China Telecom China 56.1 10 NTT DoCoMo Japan 55.4 11 Viettel Vietnam 45.0 12 Smart Communications Philippines 41.0 13 KDDI Japan 31.4 14 PMCL Pakistan 30.8 15 Indosat Indonesia 30.0 (Source: BuddeComm based on Global Mobile data) Note: 1Formerly Hutchison. With the progressive opening up of markets to more competition, we have seen the licensing of more and m ore o perators i n t he v arious c ountries o f t he region. O ne phenomenon i n A sia ha s been t he granting of a significant n umber o f mobile o perator l icences i n w hat have b een regarded as smaller markets, ie with relatively low populations as well as low income per capita. We have seen this occur for example in Cambodia, Laos and Georgia. Cambodia has been the standout market in this regard; with the licensing of Vimpelcom in 2009 this market had nine mobile operators for a country whose population was jus t under 1 5 m illion a nd G DP per c apita wa s l ess tha n US$800. The m arket i n Vietnam al so became more competitive i n 2 009 with t he a rrival o f t he V impelCom-backed G TEL- Mobile, t he number o f operators i n Vietnam jum ping t o s even a s a result. No doubt m arkets like Cambodia and Vietnam will need to go through some form of market rationalisation in the future. There are only a handful of countries that still cling to a single state-owned incumbent structure today. Typically markets ar e ch aracterised b y a n umber o f o perators i n each m arket co mpeting on price, service quality, service offering and other market areas to win market share, build customer bases and © Copyright Paul Budde Communication Pty Ltd, 2010 1 Website: www.budde.com.au Asia Mobile Operators EXECUTIVE SUMMARY healthy businesses. We have seen markets like India where some rather complex licensing systems saw dozens of operators enter the market; this was followed by a period of market rationalisation, which it is generally agreed ultimately produced a highly effective commercial environment. Similar processes have taken place right across the region. The report has gathered together a selection of information about each of these many operators. The range of information presented in the text, and where appropriate in tables, includes: • brief history of the company; • corporate and business structure; • subscriber growth; • some information on financial performance; • market position. It i s n oted t hat t he i nformation provided varies from market t o m arket an d o perator t o operator, depending very much on the availability of statistics and corporate reports. In some markets we also provide an overall review of the market in which we find these operators; this overview includes such statistical information as market share and Average Revenue per User (ARPU) if available. Within the background information we have also reported on the mergers and acquisition that have been part of a transformational market. Peter Evans & Lisa Hulme-Jones March 2010 Data in this report is the latest available at the time of preparation and may not be for the current year. The countries covered in this report include: Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei D arussalam, Ca mbodia, Ch ina, E ast Timor, G eorgia, Hong Kon g, I ndia, I ndonesia, J apan, Kazakhstan, K yrgyzstan, L aos, M acau, M alaysia, M aldives, M ongolia, M yanmar ( Burma), N epal, North Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.