Asia's Voice Market to Boom

(Top News, 17 Jul 2008)

The Asian voice market is expected to grow from 2.2 billion connections at the end of 2008 to 3.8 billion by 2017, according to market research firm Ovum. Emerging markets already dominate the Asian market, with 84 percent of total connections in 2008. This is set to increase, hitting 90 percent by 2017.

In addition, the proportion of connections that are mobile across Asia will grow from 76 percent to 83 percent of total voice connections over the same period.

"What emerges clearly is that developed and developing markets in the Asian region are on different growth tracks," says David Kennedy, Research Director at Ovum. "Developed markets in Asia display similar growth patterns to developed markets in Europe, with fixed voice playing an ongoing role and tougher competition in mobile."

"But emerging markets are dominated by mobile voice, and this dominance will continue for the foreseeable future," adds Kennedy. This means that mobile will dominate the overall voice market in Asia. The typical Asian voice connection is a mobile phone in an emerging market, and this is set to be the norm for the foreseeable future.

Ovum also made specific predictions for voice growth and decline in developed and emerging markets:

- Voice prices will continue to fall. Traditional fixed telephony prices will fall at an average 3.1 percent per annum in developed markets and 3.4 percent per annum in emerging markets between 2008 and 2017. In comparison, mobile voice prices will fall 5.8 percent and 4.7 percent per annum over the same period.

- Voice revenues have peaked in developed markets. "We expect total voice revenues to decline 14.7 percent between 2008 and 2017 in developed markets as price competition bites, especially in mobile," says Kennedy.

In contrast, emerging market voice revenues will grow 47.6 percent over the same period due to spectacular mobile connection growth, despite declines in mobile prices.

Click here for more information on Ovum