Mobile data sales, especially from 3G telephony, will provide the next major revenue generator for Asia-Pacific telecom operators, Frost & Sullivan said in a research report Wednesday.
Greater 3G implementation, declining multimedia handset prices and an increase in content offerings will see the region’s top 13 countries and territories will generate $32.9 billion in mobile data revenue by the end of 2011, the report estimated. Frost did not specify the countries and territories.
This growth will favor operators, which take the lion’s share of most content and revenue partnerships, although service providers in Japan, South Korea and China generally take smaller percentages than their Southeast Asian counterparts, the report said.
In Japan and South Korea, the current mobile revenue drivers utilize mobile applications for multimedia, whereas elsewhere in the region these services are based on short message system.
Many markets are still years away from 3G. Even China, the world’s largest mobile market, has yet to issue its 3G operator licenses, and therefore is at least a year from any kind of roll-out of these services.
