And yet it's only up a dollar:-0
Asia-Pacific's broadband business to grow 520% by 2005, says Dataquest
Semiconductor Business News
(08/20/01 15:14 p.m. EST)
HONG KONG -- Despite the current downturn in the communications market, Asia-Pacific's broadband business is projected to grow by about 520% over the next five years, according to a report from Dataquest Inc. here today.
Asia-Pacific's broadband market, excluding Japan, is projected grow from 6.1 million subscribers at the end of 2000, to 11.4 million by the end of 2001, to 37.8 million by 2005, according to San Jose-based Dataquest.
Broadband access revenue is expected to hit $5.8 billion in 2005, up from $732 million at the end of 2000, Dataquest said.
"With some of the cheapest prices for broadband services anywhere in the world, Asia/Pacific is fast becoming a global broadband leader," said Andrew Chetham, who tracks the market for Dataquest.
"The tremendous growth initially experienced in South Korea is now beginning to be seen in markets such as Taiwan and Hong Kong," he said. "We expect other developed markets such as Singapore and Australia, which made a slow start, to begin making up ground in the next 18 months," he added.
But outside the more developed countries in Asia-Pacific, most countries in the region are still slow at broadband deployment, with only a handful of users.
"Affordability and a lack of competing infrastructure will hold back growth in countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand for another two to three years," the report said.
The majority of broadband services to the home and office will be based on digital subscriber line (DSL) technologies, the report said. By 2005, Dataquest predicts there will be 24.3 million DSL subscribers across the Asia-Pacific region, they said.
Despite the upbeat environment for broadband, operators face many challenges. "Operators need to find services and applications to help them climb the value chain allowing them to add new revenue streams to plain access," Chetham said. "While some applications are proving successful in certain markets--like online games in Korea and Taiwan--a broadband 'killer app' is yet to emerge." |
