Today we are one month off to TataDoCoMo’s 3G services launch in India. DoCoMo is the only private telco in India, providing 3G services, till date. It would be really interesting to see, how DoCoMo would leverage the first mover’s advantage, and given that few other telcos are soon to launch 3G services, the dormant telecom battlefield in India is likely to heat up in coming months.
The new research, recently published by Telegeography, portrays bright picture of 3G growth. According to the report, 14{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} of global wireless subscribers are now connected to 3G network or using 3G. So it means, out of 5 billion wireless subscribers, as on Sep-2010, over 690 million sub are using 3G services. Given that first commercial 3G services launched a decade back, the pace of 3G subscriber growth appears rather slow, but going strong.
Let’s sum up key findings of the report:
- 3G penetration varies across continents, where in W.Europe, it is 35{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3}, while in Africa it is lowest at 6{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3}.
- Of the wireless total, 48{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} sub are located in Asia-Pacific region, followed by Latin America & W. Europe at 10{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3}.
- Subscription to 3G services has seen record 40{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} growth in last 12 months, as compared to only 15{af589cdba9d77786c8c861317dbad60bba1e2ebbf56e2ffab874a1b59fde9ce3} of overall telecom market.
Stats apart, this report sheds light on one other interesting fact. It took almost a decade for 3G to reach respectable global sub penetration. While 2G networks continued to dominate wireless industry for past two decades, the shift from 2G to 3G is likely to happen in coming decade or rather in span of 3-5 years. The coming decade will also mark the launch of mainstream 4th generation wireless services, namely LTE & WiMAX. But given the slow pace of technology adoption globally, it will take another decade to see LTE/WiMAX as dominant force in industry.
An interesting insight on Indian 3G market was discussed by Venkatesh Ganesh. We do agree to speculations mentioned in the article, but then Indian telecom market is always a different game. We adopted technology, when it was widely acclaimed & shown profitable globally. This might change in coming decade, when companies like Reliance Infotel, would deploy LTE to leverage advantages quickly. In India, 2G & 3G will coexist for quite long time, while LTE Broadband adoption is likely to pick up pace only in next 5-7 years. India offers enough opportunities of every generation of cellular technology, but its upto technology players how to exploit it further.