Chetan Sharma Consulting have sent us their latest research on the state of the global wireless data market, and it contains some astonishing numbers. Overall, the report is just further proof that wireless broadband is going to have a major impact.
- India is now the No. 2 wireless market, with 250 million subscriptions, ahead of the U.S. and behind China
- In 2007, wireless data revenues totaled $120 billion, about 17 percent of total mobile industry revenues of $700 billion
- For some carriers, data now represents 35 percent of total revenues, though that’s not enough to make up for the decline in voice revenues
- U.S. is the biggest wireless data market with some $24.5 billion in revenues in 2007, ahead of Japan, which spent $23.2 billion on wireless data, followed by China, which spent $12.5 billion
- In terms of wireless data revenues, globally carriers are ranked, in descending order from No. 1, as follows: NTT DoCoMo, China Mobile, KDDI, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel, O2 UK, SK Telecom, Softbank and China Unicom
- In terms of absolute dollar amount, 3 UK leads the pack, with $29 data ARPU (qualifying limit: 4 million subs). Verizon Wireless last year experienced the biggest jump in data revenues, up more than 68 percent over 2006, followed by AT&T, which rose 63 percent, and O2 UK, which posted a 49 percent gain
And now for some 3G fun facts from the research report:
- There are 270 million 3G users worldwide, with 66 percent using W-CDMA and the rest using EVDO
- Japan and South Korea have 3G penetration of between 75 percent and 80 percent
- Western Europe and the U.S. are at around 25 percent 3G penetration, with Italy leading the pack at 40 percent
- India and China have still not rolled out their 3G networks as they’re still pondering its issues
- 3G momentum is coming primarily from messaging applications and enterprise apps
here is another 1 — Wireless network will be choked by Year 2010 – considering the speed of video downloads and etc.
@360view:
Just in time for AT&T and Verizon’s LTE networks to light up. In Europe, they’ll already be lit up by 2010. I don’t think the availability of bandwidth will be an issue. The cost of that bandwidth is and could still be an issue, however.
The data numbers are 30%-40% higher than actuals
Hi Chetan,
It is technically not true China hasn’t deployed 3G technologies in fact China Mobile has deployed in 10 cities already and 3G TDSCDMA mobile handsets through Samsung for China Mobile, you’ll probably see more devices during the Beijing Olympics. Lenovo will also be pitching a TDSCDMA handset. They will use TDSCDMA handsets during the Beijing Olympics and possibly also test either Mobile WiMax or McWLL Broadband in QINGDAO during Olympic sailing races. China’s government has a strategy of favoring domestically produced technology for domestic consumption, while supporting their main equipment vendors Huawei and ZTE to sell Western licensed 2G/3G wireless protocol equipment into Western markets at dirt cheap pricing to kill competition. I also anticipate China Mobile to leap frog into 4G with software defined radio schemes in 2009. By the time we hear of official 3G license release, domestic players and technologies will have already jockeyed for positioning in China’s competitve market.
Cordially,
Karl J. Weaver
Newport Technologies
Web: http://www.newporttechnologies.biz
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