Chinese Telecom Market Sees Double-Digit Service Revenue Growth in 2010
By Jeffrey Hill | September 16, 2011
[Satellite TODAY Insider 09-16-11] China’s telecom industry enjoyed a 10 percent year-over-year increase in 2010 service revenues compared to the previous year, generating a robust regional total of $128.2 billion, according to a Pyramid Research report issued Sept. 15.
The report stated that the combination of strong growth in telecommunications service revenue and an appreciating Chinese currency will push the country’s total service revenue CAGR to 9.8 percent during the 2011-2016 period, representing the highest rate in the Asia-Pacific region.
“The outlook for China’s telecom industry remains bright in 2011 because we expect 3G service adoption to gain more momentum four years after its inauguration and operators to further capitalize on their investments in the fixed broadband network through promotion of value-added services,” Pyramid Research analysts wrote in the report.
While the report identified mobile voice as the largest contributor to overall revenue in China’s telecommunications services market, Pyramid Research forecasts that the future growth engines of the Chinese market will be mobile data and broadband Internet. “When combined, [mobile data and broadband Internet] will account for approximately 70 percent of the total revenue increase in China between 2011 and 2016. Though not within our forecast period, we expect mobile data service revenue to overtake mobile voice revenue sometime in 2017,” the report said.
The Pyramid Research report echoes similar published studies that have recently shed light on the region’s voice, video and data consumer markets. Digital TV Research issued a study in June showing that worldwide digital cable TV revenues are expected to increase from $43 billion in 2010 to 62 billion in 2016, fueled by an additional boost from Asia, according to Digital TV Research. “China will add $4.3 billion in digital cable TV revenues over the same period, followed by Japan with an extra $2.6 billion,” the report said.
In October 2010, global telecoms, media and IT adviser Analysys Mason published an enthusiastic Asian mobile market report projecting that mobile broadband services in Asia-Pacific will generate three-fold revenue increases to $7.1 billion by 2015. Analyst Yanli Suo-Saunders said that the total number of mobile broadband connections in the Asia-Pacific region will increase from 6.2 million in 2009 to 27.2 million in 2015, growing at a CAGR of 28 percent, with penetration rising from 2.6 percent of the region’s population in 2009 to 11.3 percent in 2015.