The Philippines' Data Contribution Positions It as a Mobile Data Leader in the Region - Frost & Sullivan

MANILA, Philippines, Aug. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The Philippines remains a huge prepaid mobile market. This trend is expected to continue until 2015. However, the rise of mobile internet and broadband is likely to influence an increase in postpaid numbers in the same period, says Frost & Sullivan.

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All three major operators in the Philippines use GSM system. 3G services were introduced by Smart and Globe in 2006 and by Sun Cellular in 2008 but did not gain major traction. With smartphones and faster data speeds from High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) stimulating adoption in 2009, 3G connections accounted for about 6% of the total market share. Frost & Sullivan expects this number to grow robustly to 28% by 2014, excluding mobile broadband.

Speaking about the prospect that the nation's telecommunication sector holds, Nitin Bhat, Partner at Frost & Sullivan says, "We forecast that data as a whole will rise to 55% by 2015 and non- SMS data will rise to 22% of the total data, as increasing voice usage, SMS bundling and mobile internet adoption contribute to the data portion of the average revenue per user (ARPU). However, both these numbers have upside potential based on the continued success of operators' mobile broadband offerings. The mobile operators would need to upgrade their back-haul networks to cater to this increase in the data traffic while not aggravating a dumb pipe risk."

At present, mobile data already comprises of over 50% of ARPU in the Philippines with non-messaging contribution currently at an estimated level of 7%. The country also has the highest data usage figures in this area with 54% of the total data usage in the region coming from the Philippines.

Future revenue growth is expected to be driven by wireless broadband adoption and the possible entry of more wireless competitors. Moreover, the regulatory reforms underway promise rising competition, leading to further growth opportunities in the Philippines telecom market.

To discuss more on the potential growth opportunities in the Philippines Telecoms industry, Frost & Sullivan will be re-visiting the highly competitive telecommunications nation with its, Philippines Telecoms International Summit 2010. The summit will be held in Manila on September 21, 2010 at the Peninsula Manila Hotel.

A key representative from the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), Office of the President of the Philippines will grace the summit as the guest of honor and deliver the opening keynote address on policies, plans and priorities for developing 3G Network nationwide in the Philippines.

The summit will also feature the national regulator, Commissioner Gamaliel A. Cordoba of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), who will elaborate and provide a status quo on the key policies and regulatory Initiatives in preparing for nationwide adoption of broadband services in the nation.

Endorsed by CICT, the summit will address topics ranging from optimizing operations support and billing support systems (OSS/BSS) platforms, maximizing return on investment (ROI) for complete OSS/BSS transformation, monetizing the next generation network along with many insights from local operators on internal challenges and regional counterparts on untapped opportunities in the country.

A highlight at the summit will be the International Analyst assessment presented by Frost & Sullivan that will illustrate the issues and challenges in the Mobile & Broadband Market in the Philippines.

The day-long summit will bring together senior executives from the country and the region to discuss strategic and tactical issues faced by the industry. Hear from our line-up of experts as they share their experience and insights on striking the right chord with your customers. Speakers include representatives from Amdocs, Bakrie Telecom, Bayan Telecommunications, Dialog Telekom, Planet Online Laos, Subex, Qualcomm and others, along with senior analysts from Frost & Sullivan.

Intec is a strategic partner, Clarity and Qualcomm are gold sponsors for the summit, while Amdocs and People(XS) and Subex are the partner sponsors. Dialogic is the exhibitor sponsor for the summit.

Wall Street Journal Asia is the official newspaper for the summit, ZDNetAsia is the official online media partner, PR Newswire is the official newswire.

TelecomAsia and Wireless Asia are the official media partners, The Telecom Channel is the official TV partner, Management Systems Asia is the media partner and Developing Telecoms is the supporting media for the summit.

To register for Philippines Telecom International summit, email your requests to [email protected]

For more information on the summit agenda, visit, http://frost-philtelecom.com

About Frost & Sullivan

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan