Data services are expected to push up the mobile market growth in Southeast Asia (SEA) as mobile connections penetration reached 90% in 2009, and mobile connections increased by 22.1% to 489 million subscriptions, according to a Frost & Sullivan analysis.
The report, however, said that the total mobile revenues increased marginally by 3.2% to $28.7bn in 2009, signaling saturation.
According to the Southeast Asia Wireless Outlook 2010 analysis, data usage in seven Southeast Asia nations will grow from 27.8% to 40.4% (2009 to 2015), and reach $12.4bn of total mobile revenues by 2015.
The report further revealed that Southeast Asian operators’ growth focus is shifting from customer acquisition to maintaining existing revenue streams and developing new ones.
The research firm noted that the SEA is at the beginning of another wave of mobile data services enabled by improved networks and device capabilities.
Additionally, it named three broad data service segments including, mobile Internet, mobilised Internet, and mobile broadband.
Nicholas Khoo, senior consultant at Frost & Sullivan, said: "Last year marked a tipping point for service growth drivers in Southeast Asia and the rest of Asia as data services revenues, reaching $7.1bn, drove 60% of Southeast Asia’s total revenue growth.
"Plain old voice and text messaging services will no longer deliver larger revenue growth than data services, even in developing markets such as Cambodia and Vietnam."
