In Hong Kong, at the Start of 2006, the Territory Had Almost 3.8 Million Fixed Telephone Lines in Service, Giving a Teledensity of Around 54% – 2006 North Asian Telecoms Statistics and Market Overview

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c42640)

has announced the addition of 2006 North Asian Telecoms Statistics and

Market Overview to their offering.

This annual report offers a wealth of information on the overall

Infrastructure development, Fixed and Mobile services, as well as Data

and Internet markets in: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, North

Korea, South Korea and Taiwan.

Subjects covered include:

Infrastructure Issues

Regulatory issues and government policies re infrastructure

Mobile networks, including Value Added and Next Generation Services

Development of Internet services and the growth of broadband access

Leased Lines, ISDN, Frame Relay, ATM

Brief overview of the major telecommunications carriers and service

providers

This Asia market report covers 8 economies in the North Asia sub-region.

It takes an overall look at the various telecoms markets, together with

a particular look at the broadband Internet and mobile segments in each

of the economies. The markets covered include:

China

The powerhouse that is the telecommunications market in China continues

to generate great interest worldwide. There is no doubting its

substantial growth momentum and potential. Nevertheless the market

presents many contradictions. Telecommunications in China can be

characterised by creativity and daring one minute, and by caution and

dithering the next. In fact, it is often out of step with what is

happening in other parts of the world. With the Beijing Olympics coming

up in 2008, telecommunications development has been figuring prominently

in the nation’s priority scheme as China

prepares to showcase itself.

The popularity of the Personal Access System (PAS), known as Little

Smart and being offered by the fixed line operators, has also boosted

the market. In the meantime, China has also become the world’s

biggest user of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is seen as one of the most sophisticated and dynamic

telecommunications markets in the world. A Special Administrative Region

(SAR) of China, it has built itself a world-class telecoms

infrastructure, which supports one of the world’s

highest penetrations of mobile phones and telephone services generally.

At the start of 2006, the territory had almost 3.8 million fixed

telephone lines in service, giving a teledensity of around 54%, amongst

the highest in Asia as well as in the world. Whilst the fixed-line

market has flattened out, the mobile market has continued to boom.

Digitalised since 1995, the territory has been wired with 400,000km of

optical fibre. This extensive broadband network covers the vast majority

of households and provides the basis for a wide range of existing and

future telecommunications services.

The government in Hong Kong has adopted a strongly proactive attitude to

telecommunications since 1998 and has taken some specific steps aimed at

turning the territory into a regional technology hub. OFTA, Hong Kong’s

regulatory body, has been keen to promote the idea that the successful

Hong Kong telecoms market has been due to positive action in respect of

licensing procedures and an absence of restrictions on foreign

investment. The government’s ‘open

sky’ policy has been an example of this

proactive approach.

Japan

With its sophisticated infrastructure, Japan’s

telecommunications sector is one of the most active markets in the

world. Its telecommunications sector has continued to witness strong

growth into 2006, with the rapid expansion of 3G mobile services and the

uptake of Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH) being especially noteworthy. There

have also been big strides in digital and mobile broadcasting. At the

same time, VoIP and triple play services are continuing to make their

mark.

Whilst enthusiasm for DSL appears to be waning, Fibre-to-the-Home (FttH)

Internet access has been making impressive progress in the Japanese

market with 5.4 million FttH subscribers signed up by early 2006. As

Japan runs hot in the IP telephony market, it has been predicted that

the country will have 28 million Internet phone lines operating by

end-2007. There were around nine million VoIP subscribers in the country

by end-2005.

In one of the biggest challenges for the telecom industry in Japan, the

government wants to see the domestic fixed-line telephone network

completely replaced with a fully integrated IP system. This could

possibly happen by as early as 2010. KDDI has announced that it plans to

replace its fixed-line services with the IP system by the start of 2008,

while NTT Corp has plans to replace part of its fixed-line services with

the IP system by 2010. With NTT still dominating Japanese telecoms

infrastructure, KDDI and Softbank have been busily working to bypass NTT’s

system in whatever way possible. This sets the scene for some

interesting investment moves.

Macau

Macau like Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of China,

has remained comparatively low profile in the development of its

telecommunications market. Macau has systematically gone about building

itself a strong modern telecommunications infrastructure and lays claim

to a highly penetrated telecom market. Fixed lines reached a saturation

point at 40% teledensity a few years ago. Now attention is focused on

the mobile market, where by early 2006 there were 563,000 mobile

subscribers, a remarkable penetration of 113%. Rapid growth in the Macau

mobile sector can be attributed to the opening up of the mobile market

in August 2001 to two new operators, which began competing strongly with

Macau Telecom. The incumbent’s market share

had dropped to about 46% by April 2006.

Mongolia

Mongolia has demonstrated its commitment to developing a more efficient

telecommunications network as an integral part of its push towards a

market economy. Since the mid-1990s, the Mongolian Government has

carried out a series of telecom reforms leading to effective

liberalisation of all market segments, partial privatisation of the

fixed-line incumbent operator, Mongolia Telecom, and establishment of an

independent regulatory authority. Competition is now in place for both

fixed and mobile telephony, including local, long-distance, and

international, Internet, VoIP, and VSATs. While the fixed-line network

has been expanding slowly, the mobile phone market has undergone a

remarkable boom.

North Korea

The development of the telecommunications sector in the Democratic People’s

Republic of Korea (DPRK) is seriously impeded by the country’s

parlous economic state and government repression of communication. It

has been a difficult journey indeed for telecommunications in the DPRK.

Though mobile services finally began in the capital Pyongyang in 2002 on

a limited scale, North Korean citizens were banned from using mobile

phones as of May 2004. The Chosun Ilbo newspaper has suggested that the

ban might have been imposed following the oil train explosion at

Ryongchon in April 2004. It has been suggested that the blast was

triggered using mobile phones in an attempt to assassinate North Korean

leader Kim Jong Il.

North Korea’s obsession with secrecy has made

it extremely difficult to get a clear picture of the sector. [In

the absence of official statistics, the author has made estimates in the

report.] The country looks like remaining

isolated form the rest of the world for some years to come.

South Korea

South Korea has one of the most interesting and innovative

telecommunications markets in the world. The Republic of Korea is a

leader in many facets of the telecommunications industry. Supported by a

visionary government, a creative and energetic private sector and a

technology savvy population, the country continues to push ahead. The

government support extends to serious levels of funding for development

initiatives and R&D projects. The country’s

fixed-line telephone market in South Korea continues to be dominated by

the incumbent KT, formerly known as Korea Telecom. This is despite the

market having been opened up to competition since 1997.

Taiwan

With its strong focus on the role of technology, and telecommunications

in particular, throughout its economy, it is not surprising that Taiwan

has one of the most advanced telecommunications networks in Asia. With

excellent telecommunications infrastructure in place and the innovative

use of breakthrough information technologies, the country continues to

be well placed to drive both mobile and data communications services.

There has been a real boom in telecom development. Annual

telecommunications service revenues have been running at around US$10

billion and investment in telecoms infrastructure is of the same order.

By end-2005, fixed-line telephone penetration was around 60% and mobile

penetration was 99%.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c42640