Mobile subscriber growth in the Asia-Pacific telecom market fell 21 percent in Q4 2008, the region's lowest growth rate in seven quarters, research firm Informa Telecoms and Media said.
The region's operators added just 68.7 million new subscribers, the researchers said. Some of the fastest-growing mobile markets--Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines--were hit particularly hard.
Globally, subscriptions fell 15 percent to 162 million in Q4, and growth also slowed markedly in Europe, North America and Latin America, Informa said. The quarter is usually the strongest in the year because of the Christmas holiday.
The global recession is the main factor in the slowdown, but market saturation also contributed. By the end of 2008, there were just under 4 billion active mobile subscriptions globally--a 58 percent penetration rate, Informa said. EMEA, where the penetration rate is 38 percent, proved relatively resilient.
The recent restructuring of the Chinese mobile market has also led to a slowdown in growth, Informa added.
Non-voice revenue spending fell 0.1 percent between the third and fourth quarters to US$48.9 billion. In contrast, data revenues grew by 5 percent during the third quarter, the researchers said.
Separately, metrics firm comScore said mobile broadband data card growth shrank to just 5 percent in Q4, down from 22 percent the quarter before. Data card adoption grew 63 percent, down from 157 percent in 2007.
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