Asia Pacific Hotspots: To Generate more than $6 Billion in 2009

Asia Pacific hotspots will generate more than $6 billion in both subscriber and venue oriented revenues, according to a recently released report by emerging wireless research firm, ON World Inc.

San Diego, CA, (PRWEB) April 14, 2004 -- Asia Pacific hotspots will generate more than $6 billion in both subscriber and venue oriented revenues, according to a recently released report by emerging wireless research firm, ON World Inc.

Asia Pacific network operators are deploying hotspots and gaining subscribers faster than other regions," says Ben Piper, a senior research analyst with ON World.    He notes that the Asia Pacific region has the lowest average hotspot usage fees today that have driven subscriber adoption and revenues higher than other regions." NTT and Yahoo! now offer unlimited ADSL plans for around $20/month compared to approximately $30 per month in the U.S. and $80 per month in the UK.

Some network operators such as Korea Telecom are doing particularly well by bundling their hotspot service, Nespot, with their home broadband services, MegaPass. Korea Telecoms Nespot generated $13.6 million in Q4 2003 from 360,000 subscribers.

Piper says, Most Asia Pacific network operators today view Wi-Fi as complementary to their 3G development schedules and the emergence of dual mode (Wi-Fi/cellular) mobile phones will transform this ecosystem." KTs dual mode mobile phone service, Nespot Swing, provides subscribers Wi-Fi and EVDO in one handset. In some cases, Asian network operators have abandoned their 3G plans entirely in favor of Wi-Fi.

The Asia Pacific has characteristics that are particularly attractive to hotspot developers, aggregators and network operators such as a large concentrated population, high mobile phone and broadband penetration and history of trend setting and adoption. Hotspot user adoption for the region is increasing at nearly 200 percent per year.

Billing and roaming are remaining hurdles and hotspot aggregators and billing solutions providers are moving quickly to address this. The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) holds the promise of unifying the region from a billing perspective. Some firms are already using "harmonized pricing," whereby access fees in one APAC country are the same as in another.

Of course, this region has significant differences from country to country that has and will affect Wi-Fi adoption in general and hotspots deployments and user adoption in particular. While South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and recently Indonesia are rapidly deploying hotspots and gaining users, other countries such as Australia have been much slower. In addition, China's WLAN standard, GB15629.11-2003, could splinter the market and cause sizable headaches for equipment makers and others.

More information about ON World's recently completed report, "Asia Pacific Hotspots: A Rapidly Growing Ecosystem," is available from ON World's website at: http://www.onworld.com/html/apachotspots.htm. Cost is $249.

About ON World:
ON World provides world class business intelligence on emerging wireless technology markets for Fortune 1000 companies, venture capitalists and startups. More information about ON World's research services and products may be found from http://www.onworld.com.

Media Contact: Mareca Hatler
eMail: mareca@onworld.com
Phone: 858.259.2397