The Asia-Pacific region has bucked the global trend of declining telecom growth for the last several years. The overall pace of mobile user and mobile service revenue growth has remained steady. The
Yankee Group report, "2003 Asia-Pacific Mobile User and Revenue Forecast Sees Strong Growth for Data," projects the regional user base will grow from 436 million in 2002 to 773 million in 2007, at a
CAGR of 12.2 percent through the forecast period. Emerging markets such as India and the surging popularity of prepaid subscriptions will fuel much of this growth. The Yankee Group also projects
service revenue will grow from $121 billion in 2002 to $227 billion in 2007, at a CAGR of 13.4 percent. Although voice revenue will be flat, mobile data revenue will grow strongly, at nearly 41
percent CAGR. The Yankee Group believes, however, that the region has dealt with many of its 3G growth problems and there are positive signs of 3G momentum. Even operators without 3G licenses have
announced or are contemplating alternative scenarios, typically involving deployment of EDGE networks.
