Growing appetite for connected services in south East Asia and Oceania

Smartphone subscriptions in South East Asia and Oceania to increase four fold to over 800 million and monthly data traffic to exceed 2.5 exabytes by 2020

• Social media regarded as essential to the daily lives of 23 percent of consumers across the region with 67 percent using more than two instant messaging apps to connect
• Almost one in three are interested to use Connected Home, Connected Me and Connected Car services

The second South East Asia and Oceania Appendix to the Ericsson Mobility Report is released by Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) today. This regional appendix illustrates consumer trends driving mobile phone usage and smartphone uptake. It shows growth in 3G/HSPA and 4G/LTE networks, and explores network performance.

The appendix, which includes analysis from new Ericsson ConsumerLab research of daily internet users aged 16 to 60 years old, reveals the region’s high social media engagement and a growing appetite for connected things.

Findings on Social Media:

Increasingly mobile phones are a key tool for accessing online services, particularly social media. Elie Hanna, Head of Ericsson Philippines and Pacific Islands, said:  “The region is a leader in adopting social media and instant messaging services.  In South East Asia and Oceania two-thirds of daily internet users have at least two instant messaging apps, and in the Philippines, 74% of those surveyed said that they use social media on a weekly basis.”

Hanna added: “The attractiveness of social media and instant messaging is important because users are moving beyond chat on these platforms. Additionally, improving user experience of social media apps through network performance optimization could lead to improved customer satisfaction.”

Findings on Connected Future:

ConsumerLab research findings also show that across the region Malaysian, Singaporean and Australian internet users are most likely to embrace wearable technology, use connectivity in their cars and have devices in their homes connected to the internet enabling control.

On average, one in three daily internet users in Malaysia are already using or have access to connected services, and in Singapore this is one in four. In all countries connected home services have the highest number of current users – it is also the service that people are most interested in adopting, as is the case with the Philippines (36 percent).

Ericsson ConsumerLab analysis shows a high level of interest across the region for connected services, indicating a huge growth potential for such new services.

At the end of 2014 there will be around 10 million cellular M2M devices in use in South East Asia and Oceania; this is predicted to grow by two to four times by 2020.

Smartphone Growth

”Ericsson predicts a four-fold smartphone subscription growth in the region from just over 200 million to more than 800 million in 2020, which makes network performance a key consideration for operators, especially considering the new ways consumers are discovering to consume data,” Hanna says.

As apps deliver more data intensive services, such as video streaming, better measurements than voice coverage are needed for consumers to assess if a network can deliver high quality app performance. Ericsson calls this measure “App Coverage” or network performance from a user’s perspective. This shows the level of network performance needed for a specific app to function satisfactorily. For example, video streaming requires 720kbps downlink and video telephony 320kbps uplink/downlink for a typical smart device.

Ericsson’s assessment of Ookla’s NetMetrics data from Speedtest.net shows that the cell-edge (worst case scenario) downlink throughputs for mobile networks in Australia and Singapore are able to easily deliver video streaming and video telephony.  However, the same situation would prove a challenge in other South East Asian countries.

The strong outcomes for Australia and Singapore are the result of increased penetration of 4G/LTE and proactive spectrum management strategies. In developing markets, momentum is growing for 4G and the deployment of Dual-Carrier HSPA will drive short term improvements in network performance.

The research and analysis undertaken for the Ericsson Mobility Report as well as the South East Asia and Oceania Appendix is part of the company’s efforts to understand traffic volumes, patterns and user behaviors, which is crucial to improving product development, network dimensioning and optimization. In ascertaining these measurements, Ericsson works together with operators as well as directly towards device manufacturer and application providers.

 

 

NOTES TO EDITORS

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With more than 110,000 professionals and customers in 180 countries, we combine global scale with technology and services leadership. We support networks that connect more than 2.5 billion subscribers. Forty percent of the world’s mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. And our investments in research and development ensure that our solutions – and our customers – stay in front.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT

Communications

Ericsson Philippines and Pacific Islands

Phone:  + 63 908 8863789

Email:  ellen.alarilla@ericsson.com

 

Dominguez  Marketing Communications, Inc.

Sheila Rada

Phone: +63 918 902 0722

Email:  sheila.rada@dominguez.com.ph