Trends & Forecasts

A study presented to the government of Chile has indicated that the country's broadband use is likely to grow exponentially if low- and medium-income groups can gain access to affordable high-speed connections...

Mobile subscribers in the eight new Asian markets will top one billion by 2012. Well over half the total will come from new subscribers in the next four years. Source of the prediction is Frost & Sullivan...

ITU launched its key Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Report for the Asia-Pacific region at ITU Telecom Asia 2008, held in Bangkok, Thailand. The report focuses on broadband connectivity as a vehicle for content to drive development and build a knowledge-based information society...

From a level of 22% in 2006, the percentage of Indian SMEs (companies with up to 999 employees) with a "mobile workforce," or employees who need to regularly travel on business for a minimum of four or five days in a month is now as high as 43%...

According to Dell'Oro, a source of market information on networking and telecoms infrastructure, the CDMA market infrastructure worldwide contracted 25% last year even though CDMA grew in the Asia-Pacific region...

Andicom, one of the longest established ICT congresses in Latin America and the leading communications event in Colombia is creating a digital city, U-City. U-City will offer visitors to the congress an interactive showroom of services, applications and solutions which aims to demonstrate how future digital cities and lifestyles can be created.

Internet censorship is effectively preventing thousands of American and European e-commerce websites from reaching Chinese consumers, claim Internet marketing consultants Backbone IT Group in a recent study.

It's now official - Asia-Pacific is the world leader in ICT. A new report from the ITU, published to co-incide with ITU Telecom Asia 2008 next month confirms what analysts and observers, including Developing Telecoms, have believed to be the case for years, that Asia-Pacific dominates in fixed and wireless telecommunications. But there is still a big divide in the region between ICT rich and poor economies...

Dublin-based Research and Markets has emerged as one of the most prolific publishers of telecoms analysis and forecasting. Reports on developing markets are no exception. We submit below just one of the many releases we have received from Research and Markets...

Internet Protocol is rapidly penetrating a range of key vertical and horizontal enterprise telephony markets in the Asia Pacific region. Although time division multiplexing still holds sway overall in Asia, high demand for IP from countries such as Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore has triggered a growth spurt in the region...

In recent years, mobile operators across Latin America have enjoyed addressing markets hungry for their services. Mobile penetration in the Americas, excluding the USA and Canada, stood at 69.35% as of March 2008, according to World Cellular Information Service. Growth has been strong...

Almost 600 million mobile users, a major restructuring of the country's mobile sector - and the Olympic Games. How on earth will China cope? Peter Collingwood, Vice-President, JDSU's Communications Test & Measurement business segment, EMEA, offers some answers.

Global management consultancy Arthur D. Little is set to integrate the staff of Affinitiv into its Middle East office. Zoran Vasiljev, founder and CEO of Affinitiv, will take on the role of company director as his leadership team and employees join Arthur D. Little's Middle East practice...

China's online-video site Youku.com has received its long-awaited licence from China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. This may indicate that China's government will not take as tough a line on privately owned online-video companies as some had feared...

Research and Markets has announced the addition of its report "Middle East - Telecoms, Mobile & Broadband in The Mediterranean & Levant Countries" to its stable. The annual report offers information on trends and developments in telecommunications, mobile, Internet, broadband...

With increasingly open mobile operator networks, the rise in mobile content and applications, and the influx of smartphones, the world is seeing a revolution in mobile adoption. Perhaps nowhere else are the potentials and pitfalls of this technology being seen more clearly than in the emerging markets of the Middle East...

Internet Business Solutions Group, the consulting arm of Cisco has entered into a partnership with the Moroccan government to boost economic development and accelerate digital transformation...

The Arab Advisors Group publishes a yearly update on the rates of connectivity within the various Arab countries. this year broadband and fixed services have played their part alongside mobile in fueling substantial improvements in connectivity rates...

No fewer than 30 countries lie in the South Pacific region. Some are established players, such as Australia. Others are tiny specks of rock. Together they form Oceania...

Russia is set to dominate the pay TV sector in Eastern Europe with a 50% share of the market by 2012. This prediction is made by Screen Digest in its latest media analysis. The latest report from media analyst Screen Digest examines the market for pay TV in 12 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, and Russia...

Living up to this reputation as a radical leader, Bolivian president Evo Morales has used the opportunity of May Day to announce that he will be nationalising Entel, his country's main telco. He also declared that he would take over four foreign-owned gas companies. Key to the decision is the fact that 50% of Entel's ownership is in the hands of Telecom Italia SpA. Negotiations whereby Entel would purchase Telecom Italia's share go back several months and have been complicated...

Delegates at the Russia & CIS Com congress in Moscow on 3-4 June 2008 will enjoy an opportunity to learn more about a sector undergoing major changes. For the Ukraine and Russia are currently a battleground for growing GSM and CDMA mobile operators...

Figures for the first quarter of trading have been released by Zain. Subscriber numbers have now reached 45 million in the Middle Eastern and African regions (15 million higher than at this time in 2007), with net profits up 10% to US$270 million...

Internet cafes have played their part in popularising the Net from the very start. In one country, Cameroon, it would appear that Internet cafe owners are worried that the mobile Net will threaten their market position...

Cubans are now able to buy mobile phones. They can now use pre-paid systems to make both national and international calls. This is the first time that this has been possible in Cuba and reflects a limited programme of economic liberalisation which Raul Castro is authorising, not least in ending bans on electrical consumer goods...

East Africa is one of the most dynamic markets in Africa. Most countries in the region are experiencing high GDP growth and favourable market and regulatory conditions. Tanzania is one of the most attractive with 7% GDP growth, stable political conditions, dynamic operators and a low mobile penetration level...

The Cuban government announced last week that it will allow the general public to purchase prepaid mobile phones - a privilege previously only afforded to key government officials and foreign workers. Despite the previous restrictions, some Cubans had managed to acquire mobile phones from foreigners. Nevertheless, usage has remained low. According to Analysis research, mobile penetration stood at only 1.8% at the end of 2007, up from 1.6% in the previous year...

WiMAX suffered a major setback when the partnership between US operator Sprint Nextel, one of the technology's strongest advocates, and wireless high-speed Internet service provider Clearwire fell apart in November 2007. Now a new frontrunner has emerged with ambitious plans that may strengthen the case for WiMAX...

Liberalising telecoms in Saudi Arabia and conflict-torn Iraq will result in major growth markets for the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector. What is more, the Arabian Gulf ICT market is one of the fastest growing in the world, with Middle East telecoms and broadband Internet expected to generate US$70 billion in annual sales revenue by 2015. These are two claims by the organisers of Middle East Communications 2008...

A new Networking Skills Gap study commissioned by Cisco has revealed a future gap of nearly 27 percent between supply and demand of Internetworking experts by 2010. The shortage equates to nearly 90,000 qualified professionals who would need to be trained before then to meet the expected demand...

London Business School Professor Leonard Waverman and global economic consulting firm LECG have published a pioneering - and very revealing - report in to the efficiency of governments and business when it comes to ICT.

Kuwait's private sector has experienced its highest ever net profits posting, thanks to mobile operator Zain...

Orange and Vodafone are winners in the contest for the last two 3G licenses in Romania. At least that is how it now appears, in a story which has lessons for regulators and operators in emerging markets worldwide...