As I look back on TM Forum’s Management World Asia conference in February, our largest Asia-focused conference to date, I’m struck by the how dramatically the Asian communications market has changed over the last 20 years.
Until fairly recently Asia has been viewed more as a follower in terms of adoption of key standards and innovation in the communications space. However, in the past five years or so, that perception has been turned on its head with Asia rapidly moving from being a follower of Western innovation to being the innovative leader itself.
Today, the eyes of the world are definitely turned to Asia in many respects, from transformation programs, improving efficiency, increasing ARPU, launching bold new services and more, and the TM Forum, a global non-profit industry association focused on simplifying the complexity of running a service provider’s business organization, is there working with key service providers to develop standards and best practices suited to the region.
Breaking it down
While it may be simplistic, the communications industry tends to think of Asia as being comprised of four distinct sub-groupings -- China, India, Japan and Korea, and Southeast Asia -- although one could easily argue that there are many more.
The industry views China as unique unto itself, with its large number of subscribers and the network complexity that goes along with it in terms of data management and billing. While an operator like China Mobile is managing half a billion customers, there are another 800 million potential customers.
Clearly, the Chinese market is far from saturated, but operators are experiencing shrinking ARPU as service rolls out to lower income customers. As a result, they are forced to enable incredibly high levels of operational and IT efficiency. To complicate matters, all of this growth and dynamic competitive attitude is happening in a very tightly regulated and structured market.
In comparison, Japan and Korea have an incredibly mature market, the most advanced technology in the world, high ARPU, high investments and strong participation from local suppliers. These two countries are far ahead of any other country in the world in so many areas, such as mobile entertainment, broadband speeds to the home and more.
Third on our list, India is a massive market on its own – the largest in the world after China with impressive subscriber growth, especially in its middle class of almost 300 million people. That’s larger than the North American market and certainly leaps and bounds beyond anything in Europe.
Finally, we have Southeast Asia with the so-called “tiger” economies of Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines and Indonesia, which are growing very fast with a lot of investment and new ideas.
Some lump Australia and New Zealand into the Southeast Asia market because while these two markets are distinct, they also have a lot of similarities in that they are both home to government-sponsored broadband networks such as Nucleus Connect, Singapore’s Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN), and the National Broadband Network k (NBNCo) in Australia. Under these types of models, anyone can buy capacity and plug into the network which creates a layered market with an infrastructure provider, companies that create services and finally, service retailers.
Measuring the market
To address the challenges and demands created by the different types of markets emerging across Asia, TM Forum established China, Southeast Asia and India Regional Councils. These councils help direct our work in the region in order to make sure we are meeting the specific needs of that market through standards development and training for operators and suppliers.
Whether you measure the Asian market in number of subscribers, rollout of innovative services or the level of investment coming in, the region is right at the top of the list. Indeed, the eyes of the world are definitely turned to Asia in many respects, from transformation programs, improving efficiency, increasing ARPU, launching bold new services and more. We’re privileged to be a part of it and to help where needed and bring the Asia success story to other markets around the world. |
