Low Take Up Of 3G

The latest findings from TNS reveal that Asia is ready to adopt next generation wireless services and pay extra for them, supporting its role as one of the world’s most sophisticated mobile markets.

The 2003 Asia Telecoms study (ATI), which was conducted in April across 11 Asian countries, reveals that 25 per cent of mobile phone owners are using, or likely to start using, 2.5 and 3G services within the next 6 months.

TNS found that people are willing to pay extra for these services, with half of those questioned stating that they would be happy to pay 20 per cent more on their current monthly bill for 2.5 or 3G services, increasing to 30 per cent amongst those wishing to have these capabilities within the next 6 months.

Hanis Harun, Regional Director for Telecoms Asia Pacific, at TNS, commented:
“For telecoms providers in Asia, these findings provide a strong reassurance that there is a significant level of early adopters of next generation services. With these specific users being willing to pay extra for such capabilities, the providers must focus their business efforts on satisfying their needs in order to boost sales and in crease their return on investments.”

The mobile applications which have gained the most interest amongst current mobile users are those which offer communications and information capabilities. Apart from SMS, the main communication services that customers are keen to make use of are MMS for photos (50 per cent) and emails with attachments (48 per cent). With regards to popular information based applications, these include searching yellow pages and directories (52 per cent) and location-finding based services (49 percent).

Chi Wing Chan, Regional Director of Telecoms and Technology, at TNS, explains:
“For service providers to truly capitalise on market potential, they should ensure that they do not take their eyes off the communication and information related applications which are going to be the pillars of 2.5 and 3G. It is evident that games and other capabilities, coupled with m-commerce offerings will have a following and it is clear that they will be more niche than the likes of MMS and news services”.

On the whole, the ATI study results are regarded as good news for telecoms providers, even though many users are still sceptical and are adopting a ‘wait and see’ attitude. Even amongst the early adopters, most respondents said they were ‘quite’, rather than ‘very’ likely, to adopt 2.5 or 3G in the next six months.

There are also early signs that 3G services might not be living up to the hype. In Korea for example, although the number of users is still relatively small, the indications are that about half of the users of services such as real time TV and videophones, have expressed dissatisfaction and requested improvements from service providers.

Hans added:
“Whether or not 2.5 or 3G manages to attract the early adopter group revealed by the ATI, and indeed whether it manages to convert the remainder of the market, will depend very much on the mobile suppliers. If they prove to be a disappointment, then bad word of mouth will surely stunt the growth of the technology in the market, from which it can take a long time to recover.”

Serving as an industry benchmark for mobile, fixed internet and broadband market measurements, the Asia Telecoms Index identifies emerging trends in 3G technology and applications as well as providing consumer attitudes and insights.