Market Trends

Annual revenues from the global mobile market will top US$1.03 trillion by 2013, when the number of subscriptions worldwide will have risen to more than 5.3 billion, according to Informa Telecoms & Media. From end-2007 to end-2013, the global mobile market will see huge growth, increasing in size by over half (56%), according to the latest edition of Informa Telecoms & Media’s Global Mobile Forecasts to 2013. It took over 20 years to reach 3 billion subscriptions, but another 1.9 billion net additions are forecast in just six years, with the global total nudging past the 5-billion milestone in 2011. With this extraordinary growth, total annual revenues derived from mobile operators will grow by over a third (33.9%), jumping from US$769bn in 2007 to US$1.03 trillion six years later.

 by Bruce Elbert, President, Application Strategy, Inc. and Michelle Elbert

The satellite broadband sector has gained a lot of ground as there are now approximately over one million individual users worldwide. These are families and small businesses who subscribe to service providers that address the individual consumer by providing a dish, modem and access to the Internet. With the familiar asymmetrical arrangement, these services deliver download speeds between 200 kbps and perhaps 1 Mbps; and upload speeds that hover at 100 kbps as a peak rate. Subscribers generally choose satellite broadband because they cannot obtain one of the more common terrestrial broadband services, namely DSL and cable modem. I encounter many who employ satellite broadband and they uniformly find it reasonably good and a worthwhile expenditure, since they need "always on" high speed access to the Internet for a combination of work and pleasure.

by Tom van der Heyden

The current global economic turmoil is having an effect on Asia, but a brief review of history shows that Asia will weather the storm better than other regions and will in fact benefit in several ways from this financial crisis--as well as have a faster rebound.

by Virgil Labrador, Editor-in-Chief

Beginning with what seemed like another promising year for the satellite industry, 2008 saw the world’s economy go down in a spiralling downturn that brought us into the world’s worst recession since the Great Depression in 1933. They don’t have a name for this recession yet (remember the "Oil Crisis" of the 70s and the "Telecom and Dot.com Bust" of the late 90s/early 2000s). But then again we are just in the beginning of this one. No one can really foretell what lies ahead, but it will almost certainly get worse before it gets better.

The Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) released new data for Asia’s pay-TV market, showing 71million digital pay-TV households out of 300 million pay-TV subscriptions across Asia during its annual convention in Hong Kong, October 28, 2008.

ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré said  that worldwide mobile cellular subscribers are likely to reach the 4 billion mark before the end of this year.  Dr Touré was speaking at the high-level events on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in New York, where he also participated in UN Private Sector Forums addressing the global food crisis and the role of technological innovation in meeting the MDGs.

by Virgil Labrador, Editor-in-Chief

With the global financial downturn, satellite companies are always looking for new and emerging markets to sell their products and services.  But with the increasingly global nature of the world’s economies, there are fewer markets left to explore.

Worldwide IPTV Service Revenue Will Reach $19 Billion in 2012

Worldwide subscriptions to internet Protocol television (IPTV) services are on pace to reach 19.6 million subscribers in 2008, a 64.1 per cent increase from 12 million subscribers in 2007, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide IPTV revenue is projected to total $4.5 billion in 2008, a 93.5 per cent increase from 2007 revenue of $2.3 billion.

A new generation of satellites, and spectrum assigned to mobile satellite services, will play a prominent role in the next major development in television and radio broadcasting.

ITU launched its key Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Report for the Asia-Pacific region at ITU TELECOM ASIA 2008, which got under way  in Bangkok, Thailand, September 1. The Report focuses on broadband connectivity as a vehicle for content to drive development and build a knowledge-based information society.