The revenues are expected to jump from US$7.8 billion in 2002 to US$15.8 billion in 2003, she said. "An important factor is the growth from Australia, where we expect to see stronger take-up of broadband services in 2003," Gamble told ZDNet Australia.
"Because of the dominance of corporate subscribers in the Australian market, and a high pricing regime based on bandwidth capacity usage which will sustain ARPUs (Average Revenue Per User) throughout the forecast period, we will see Australia account for a significant portion of overall Asia/Pacific - excluding Japan - broadband revenues," she added. Australia is the only country in the Asia Pacific region to use this charging model.
The practice of corporations using broadband services as leased line alternatives is another key factor in revenue growth. Although the pricing for the broadband services is set at a premium, they still offer a competitive alternative to leased line services, at higher speeds, IDC claims.
This will offset downward pricing pressure from the high availability of bandwidth and the poor economic climate in the region. The broadband market has become increasingly competitive, according to Gamble, with new service providers and new technologies such as Ethernet Internet access and managed wireless LAN services entering the market.
Subscriber numbers will not grow as fast, moving from 16.22 million broadband subscribers by the end of 2002 to 22.53 million in 2003. According to Gamble, the majority of subscribers are in Korea, with growth picking up in Australia, China and Taiwan.
As a whole, the Asia Pacific Telecom Services Market will see double-digit growth to exceed US$180 billion in 2003. Along with broadband, the largest revenue providers are expected to be wireless, PSTN and VoIP.
Demand for IP-VPN services is also expected to increase dramatically, but from a small revenue base.
The wireless market in the Asia Pacific region is expected to grow from 250 million subscribers in 2001 to more than 550 million in 2006, according to Gamble.
