Emerging markets drive Asia-Pacific telecom growth in 2024

Telco infrastructure expansion, network advancement including 5G and fiber deployments, and innovative services boosted the Asia-Pacific region’s mobile and fixed broadband subscriber base by 4.0% and 2.2%, respectively, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan.

Key 2024 telecom market highlights in the Asia-Pacific region:

• With more than 673.2 million subscribers at year-end 2024, Kagan models indicate that 55.2% of households in the Asia-Pacific were connected to fixed broadband services, up from 53.9% of households the previous year. Service revenue increased to $79.7 billion in 2024 from $75.7 billion in 2023, reflecting the effective bundling strategies and strong demand for high-speed internet from households. Meanwhile, blended broadband average revenue per user softened to $10.06 per month in 2024 from $10.07 per month in 2023.
• Our latest mobile projections for the 14 studied markets in Asia-Pacific estimated 4.38 billion mobile subscribers by year-end 2024 as compared to 4.28 billion in 2023. The mobile penetration rate reached 117.8% as the covered markets had a total population of 3.71 billion in 2024. The mobile sector generated $326.5 billion in service revenue in 2024, a 2.6% increase from 2023. Mobile ARPU reached $12.18 in 2024.
• Emerging markets in the Asia-Pacific region are characterized by sustained growth in the fixed broadband and mobile industries. Cambodia, India, the Philippines, Laos, Pakistan, Myanmar, Indonesia, and other small Asia-Pacific markets posted the strongest growth year over year for the fixed broadband sector. Most of these markets historically had low broadband adoption, which provided much room for expansion. For the mobile sector, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and India experienced the most significant year-over-year subscription growth. Advanced and other Asia-Pacific markets also showed substantial subscriber-base growth.
• Fiber is the dominant broadband technology in all studied markets in 2024. Mainland China maintains its lead position in the region in terms of both subscribers and revenue.
• Infrastructure advancements have increased telecom service penetration across markets. Government-initiated network systems and fiber infrastructure rollout in emerging markets made progress in 2024, aiming to reduce the digital divide. Developed markets continue to upgrade services as the digital economy plays a vital role in becoming competitive in the present global market.
• Based on 2024 per capita gross national income at purchasing power parity, we calculate that fixed-broadband services are most affordable in Taiwan and Singapore while Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and other small Asia-Pacific markets have the least affordable services. For mobile, our 14 studied markets generated an affordability index between 0.2% and 0.7%, demonstrating that wireless services in the Asia-Pacific region are affordably priced.

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Global Multichannel is a regular feature from S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan.

This article was published by S&P Global Market Intelligence and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.