Trends & Forecasts

With declines in ARPU worse than previously forecast, Indonesia is one of the riskier markets in Asia-Pacific – but it holds significant promise...

The use of foreign currency as legal tender in Zimbabwe has been of great benefit to the country’s telecoms sector...

With a penetration rate of over 75% and the imminent widespread introduction of wireless and 3G broadband, Ghana’s telecoms sector has gone from strength to strength...

With operators recording growth once again after a period of decline, now is the time for Kuwait to improve competition with the introduction of an independent regulatory body...

Mobile broadband and 3G services continue to spread across several Central Asian countries, while the region itself has proved a notable testing ground for LTE deployments.

With increased growth in the African telecommunications market, competition has intensified. The market is nearing saturation and margins are increasingly coming under pressure. As a result, CEOs have to start considering rejecting strategies aimed at subscriber acquisition...

With a large population and a low penetration rate, Bangladesh’s mobile market offers significant growth potential...

With a high penetration rate, mobile subscriber numbers in Ghana are set to remain fairly constant but 3G is on the rise...

China could see more than $8 billion in mobile payments by 2014...

The Philippines’ mobile market is approaching saturation, which is leading to a slowdown in subscriber growth...

With tumultuous political upheaval in the wider Middle East and North African region, telecom forecasts have of course been affected...

Commercial 3G services are gaining traction in many Central Asian countries, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, according to new mobile subscriber data for Q410...

With the return of relative calm to Jordan's political scene after protests for political reforms in early 2011, the country's telecoms sector is repositioning itself to restore investor confidence and attract funds for expanding and upgrading the network...

The advent of stock exchanges in Laos and Cambodia could be a defining factor for the economic development of the Southeast Asian countries...

Stagnant growth in Iran’s mobile sector is unfortunately mirrored by its internet market. This could well be the result of government censorship...

The number of operators in South Africa’s already competitive mobile market could yet increase – and the market leader Vodacom has stated its opinion that this could be damaging to the market in the long term...

As part of DT’s Africa focus this month, editor James Barton spoke with John Strand, the founder of Strand Consult and a well respected analyst of the African telecoms scene. With many African markets over capacity in terms of the number of operators, Strand believes that consolidation will be crucial going forward...

Although the notoriously reclusive country’s telecoms sector lags far behind other emerging markets, North Korea has seen notable growth in ICT over the past year, according to new information from BuddeComm...

Despite some restrictions and censorship, which culminated in the 2011 political and social unrest, Egypt is one of the most developed Internet markets in Africa in terms of users, international bandwidth and services offered...

Growth in Pakistan’s mobile sector was slow during 2010 compared to previous years, largely due to losses accumulated from the economic crisis as well as the country suffering from one of the worst floods in its history...

Oman's progression up industry ratings tables was halted this quarter on the back of heightened political and industry risks from the social unrest in the Middle East and North Africa region...

Despite its constantly stymied 3G auctions, mobile penetration is high in Thailand, and broadband subscriptions are increasing faster than anticipated...

Mobile subscriber numbers in Zimbabwe trebled from early 2009 to mid-2010, whereas fixed line subscriptions remained stagnant. With demand for voice services increasingly met, future growth is predicted to occur around mobile Internet and broadband provision...

The Indian telecom market has seen an average growth rate of 30% for the past many years, and today the number of mobile phone subscribers in the country stands at almost 600 million. This means that nearly half of the country’s population subscribes to cellular services...

Latin America outperformed other regions in mobile revenue growth for the period 1Q 2010 to 1Q 2011...

The Indian telecom industry has undergone a revolutionary change during the past few years to become one of the leading telecom markets on the global map...

With demand for internet access constantly rising in India, the ISP market is witnessing tremendous growth in subscriber numbers, and as a result the demand for the network equipment and consumer premise equipments bought by ISPs is growing...

A major power crisis could be underway in Nigeria, as the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) is generating insufficient power despite the country’s increasingly dependency on diesel generated power as its primary source of energy...

The Lebanese telecommunications market has suffered for many years from a lack of political will to make the changes necessary to free up the market in order for it to reach its potential...

Although overly dominant players in Angola’s telecoms sector have been keeping mobile and internet prices high, new forecasts indicate that this could be set to change as soon as this year with the introduction of new competition...

Thailand’s strong mobile market presents a complex commercial environment, with its mix of state-owned companies and private operators functioning under a wide variety of corporate and regulatory structures and interfaces...

Plans to transform Bangladesh into a digital country by 2021 are gaining traction after the Bangladeshi government announced plans in September 2010 to implement seven projects at a cost of BDT64.34bn...