SINGAPORE-The Asia-Pacific cellular phone market topped 170 million subscribers in the first quarter, a 47-percent increase from the reported 115.9 million subscribers for the first quarter of 1999, according to Dataquest Inc., a unit of Gartner Group Inc.
The report, “Asia/Pacific and Japan Cellular Market: First Quarter 2000 Review,” showed that for the first time, China led all other countries in the region with 51.7 million cellular phone subscribers. With 51.1 million subscribers, Japan had been the top country in the region, but fell behind China.
“The Chinese market continues to grow at a very fast pace,” said Bertrand Bidaud, director of telecommunications and e-business for Gartner. “Unicom has now positioned itself as a real competitor to China Mobile, and it’s winning an impressive number of new subscribers, especially during the last month of the quarter.”
Dataquest analysts said the industry received a boost from the growth in prepaid services, with the segment reporting 12 million subscribers at the end of March.
The Philippines was the largest prepaid country in the region with 2.7 million users, though the report noted China was the country to watch, having registered 1.3 million new prepaid users.
