Telecom operators in Asia Pacific are expected to invest $730 billion towards Capex (capital spending) between 2014 and 2020, said GSMA.

Asian telecoms have invested $430 billion towards Capex in the last six years. The fresh investment plan indicates significant improvement in Capex plan.

GSMA did not share specific investment plans of Asian telecoms. Some of the prominent telecoms in Asia include China Mobile, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, China Telecom, NTT Docomo, Korea Telecom, SK Telecom, etc.

By 2020, the mobile industry will contribute more than 6.9 percent to the region’s GDP against 4.7 percent ($864 billion) at present. The mobile will be directly supporting more than 6.1 million jobs as compared with 3.7 million jobs currently.

GSMA report unveiled today 3G subscribers will increase to 1.63 billion by 2020 from 850 million in 2013.

India heading for a small 4G market

4G subscribers in Asia Pacific will grow to 1.34 billion by 2020 from 102 million in 2013. Out of 1.34 billion 4G users, 900 million will come from China, said GSMA. This means, the balance 440 million 4G subscribers will come from major telecom nations such as Korea, Japan, India, Indonesia, etc.

The research indicates that 3G will grow from 25 percent of the 3.4 billion mobile connections to 34 percent of 4.8 billion total connections expected by 2020.

On the other hand, 4G will increase from 3 percent of 3.4 billion mobile connections to 28 percent of 4.8 billion total connections expected by 2020, said GSMA.

South Korea is the first country to cover 100 percent of its population by 4G networks.

GSMA said the take-up of 4G services in China is likely to be at twice the rate of the earlier move to 3G. There will be almost 900 million 4G mobile connections in China by the end of 2020 against 100 million in 2014.

Baburajan K