LONDON-The wireless market in the Asia-Pacific region is surpassing fixed telephony, according to CIT Research Ltd. Despite demand for more landline telephones in the area, CIT said overall market penetration of lines is only 6 percent, compared with 48 percent in Europe.
In its study “Public Network Services in Asia & the Pacific 1996,” CIT said economic polarization in Asia makes funding of fixed wireline infrastructure difficult.
“To give China 170 million telephone lines by the year 2000 (13 per 100 people) would cost $60 billion plus,” said Jill Maslen, managing director of CIT. “There are few lenders in the queue.”
But capital is abundant in the region’s cellular sector, CIT said, and cellular networks are less expensive than their wireline local loop counterparts. In addition, mobile licenses are awarded to private investors while fixed networks are financed publicly.
The Philippines illustrates the trend. Its cellular market grew more than 100 percent in 1995, while its fixed telephony line base only had 25 percent growth.
“Even in the poorest economies, business people can get a cellular phone. This takes the pressure off improving the public switched telephone network,” said Maslen.
