3GSM Asia: Two billion GSM subs today, tomorrow the world
October 19, 2006
Operators should already be thinking beyond the next 1 billion subscribers and looking towards a time when GSM coverage reaches out over 90 per cent of the world’s population. That was the message delivered to delegates by a panel of leading CEOs at the 3GSM World Congress keynote address this week in Singapore.
It took 12 years to reach the first 1 billion GSM subscribers, then just 30 months to breach the 2 billion milestone in June of this year. The phenomenal growth rate is set to continue in the short term, however, carriers will need to innovate if they are to close the gap that exists between the current global mobile penetration figure of 38.9 per cent and the current potential market of 4.8 billion people.
Smart Communications’ president and CEO, Napoleon Nazareno, was on hand to describe how his company looked beyond the more heavily populated urban areas and into rural communities. Smart has 99 per cent coverage of the Philippines. Smart initially invested heavily in backbone and transmission, and combined that with its fixed network, but its success is down to more than infrastructure.