State Of Play - Internet Access Markets In Asia-Pacific

I managed to get my hands on a few reports on Internet Access markets in Asia-Pacific, which I think is a very important indicator for the future of the region. I shall try to consolidate the salient points. The Internet access market consists of the total revenues generated by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from the provision of narrow band and broadband Internet connections to Internet subscribers. Asia-Pacific comprises Australia, China, Japan, India, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.

The Asia-Pacific internet access market generated total revenues of $69.4 billion in 2008, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.7% for the period spanning 2004-2008. The number of internet subscribers increased with a CAGR of 14% between 2004-2008, to reach a total of 151.9 million in 2008. The performance of the market is forecast to decelerate, with an anticipated CAGR of 14.2% for the five-year period 2008-2013, which is expected to drive the market to a value of $135 billion by the end of 2013.

The Asia-Pacific internet access market generated total revenues of $69.4 billion in 2008, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.7% for the period spanning 2004-2008. In comparison, the Americas and European markets grew with CAGRs of 10.7% and 12.8%, respectively, over the same period, to reach respective values of $64 billion and $51.4 billion in 2008. The number of internet subscribers increased with a CAGR of 14% between 2004- 2008, to reach a total of 151.9 million in 2008. The number of subscribers is expected to rise to 253.9 million by the end of 2013, representing a CAGR of 10.8% for the 2008-2013 period.

The performance of the market is forecast to decelerate, with an anticipated CAGR of 14.2% for the five-year period 2008-2013, which is expected to drive the market to a value of $135 billion by the end of 2013. Comparatively, the Americas and European markets will grow with CAGRs of 8% and 6.4%, respectively, over the same period, to reach respective values of $93.8 billion and $70 billion in 2013.

The 3 biggest and leading players for Internet Access in Asia-Pacific are:

1) China Telecom - China Telecom has a single operating segment: wireline. It provides wireline telecommunication services, wireline internet, value added services, managed data services, and leased line services to residential, government and business customers. The company primarily operates in China. The company is headquartered in Beijing, China and has around 285,105 employees. The company provides telecommunications services in 20 provinces of China including Shanghai municipality, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Chongqing municipality, Sichuan, Hubei, Hunan, Hainan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Hui autonomous region, and Xinjiang.

The wireline telephone services of the company include local, long distance, and interconnection services. China Telecom had 220 million local telephone subscribers towards the end of 2007. China Telecom offers primary internet access services to residential and medium enterprise customers. It provides broadband services to business and residential customers through fiber optic networks. The company had about 35 million broadband subscribers at the end of FY2007.

China Telecom offers managed data services such as digital data network services, which enable data transmission at 64 Kbps to 2 Mbps and serves small and medium enterprise customers. It also offers frame relay or Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) services. ATM technology supports high speed data transfers.

2) KT Freetel - KT Freetel Co. (KTF) is a mobile communication company. The company's activities include the provision of code division multiple access (CDMA) engineering consulting services, wireless data telecommunication solutions, technology-related training and consulting services. The company also provides wideband CDMA (WCDMA) services under the brand name 'SHOW'. The company operates in South Korea where it is headquartered in Songpa Gu, Seoul, and employs about 2,555 people. The company is involved in various activities that include: the provision of code division multiple access (CDMA) engineering consulting services, including the planning and design of wired and wireless networks, network installation and testing, and network maintenance and optimization; the provision of wireless data telecommunication solutions, such as mobile data services based on short message service (SMS), wired and wireless integrated telecommunication services and multipack services based on CDMA, and the provision of technology-related training and consulting services. The company also provides WCDMA (wideband code division multiple access CDMA) services under the brand name 'SHOW'.

3) NTT - Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) is a Japan-based telecommunications provider. The company operates through wholly owned subsidiaries, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation (NTT East), and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone West Corporation (NTT West), which have monopolies in their markets; the long distance carrier NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Communications); mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo; NTT Data and various other subsidiaries. The company primarily operates in Japan. It is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and employs about 193,831 people.

The company's long distance and international communications segment offers international communications services and related ancillary services. IP/packet communications services handled by the long distance and international communications business include OCN, IP-VPN and frame relay. Under the mobile communications segment, the company operates thorough NTT DoCoMo Group in Japan. NTT DoCoMo is 65.3% owned by NTT.

The company offers its third generation (3G) services through FOMA (Freedom of Mobile multimedia Access) over Wide Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA standard). IP/packet communications services handled by the mobile communications business segment include i-mode. i-mode service is a wireless, packet-based Internet-access service using a system that transmits information that has been divided into blocks called packets.

The Future

By the year 2013, the Asia-Pacific internet access market is forecast to have a value of $135 billion, an increase of 94.6% from 2008. The compound annual growth rate of the market in the period 2008-2013 is predicted to be 14.2%.

In terms of subscribers, by the year 2013, the Asia-Pacific internet access market is forecast to have 253.9 million internet subscribers, an increase of 67.2% from 2008. The compound annual growth rate of the market volume in the period 2008-2013 is predicted to be 10.8%.


p/s photos: Sheila Majid (over the years)

The Best Malay Album Thus Far

I think this proposition would not result in any heated debate. One may quibble that all but one song were by P.Ramlee and not "original", but what is an album but a collection of songs, hopefully presented in a thematic way. Without doubt, Sheila Majid's Legenda album is so way way up there in terms of quality, musicality, the high level of musicianship, the superb production, the meticulous thought behind the concept and integrity of the album in order to be a fitting tribute to P. Ramlee - these were just some qualities attached to that album. The contribution and creative strategy by Jenny Chin, Fauzi Marzuki and Roslan Aziz cannot be understated. Sheila was all the way behind the conceptualisation of the album.

The album started off with a dream like sequence, as if it was beginning to tell a story, a dream of days where life was simpler and much better. Where good is good and people generally behaved better, where people do not have guess your motivations or motives, cause everyone regarded one another with sincerity and integrity. Where the girls were named Azizah or Fatimah, not Farah or Misha...

Liking Sheila was so easy. When she burst on the music scene, she was like a pocket dynamite... how can someone so smallish have such a powerful voice. Her first album Dimensi Baru was raw but had strong appeal. When EMOSI came out, that pissed a lot of people because suddenly Sheila Majid was the one Malay artiste whom every single young Malaysian can love and adore - there are still pockets of the Malay crowd that instantly does not like it when other "groups" embrace Malay culture.... you know who you are!!! Sheila solidified her status as the numero uno with the brilliant WARNA album. You go to her concerts, you will find truly all Malaysians going crazy. Safe to say, during those heydays, it was also a significant period where non-Malays were more open to embrace Malay pop. Maybe it was the quality of musicianship, maybe it was the the fact that we all studied all subjects in Malay except English, maybe it was just the right time, maybe it was just because we are Malaysians through and through ... It was a time when all Malaysians freely listened to Carefree, Black Dog Bone, Alleycats and of course the queen Sheila Majid.

Many of us thought after each progressively better album, what can Sheila come out with next. It was a long wait, but OMG, what an album in Legenda!!! You want to do a tribute to P. Ramlee, you better do something unique cause everybody has sung P. Ramlee.

The selection of the songs were broad based, there were the light hearted tunes, the classics but all were given a refreshing new take, either via the new beat or the instrumentation. Staying true to the melodies and not excessively improvising. The inclusions of the heart wrenching songs, similar to what I would call the torch-songs, such as Jeritan Batin and Di Mana Kan Ku Cari Ganti helps paint a full picture of P. Ramlee's talents and versatility.



The stable of musicians assembled were magnificent. Most significantly, listen to the wonderful contributions by Paul Ponnudurai on Aduh Sayang, Manusia, Bunyi Guitar and Larut Malam. Mac Chew's arrangement abilities and his sakuhachi on Legenda were superb.

The wonderful surprise was that of all the songs, there was basically only one original song, and considering that all were P. Ramlee's top songs (Getaran Jiwa, Engkau Laksana Bulan)... I think P. Ramlee would not disagree with me if I say that the one original song, Legenda, was better than any of P. Ramlee's songs on that album. The composers Fauzi Marzuki (melody) and Habsah Hassan (lyrics) were never more brilliant - the melody and the apt lyrics, OMG, talking about the confluence of all things possible. I certainly have never come across such thoughtful, heartfelt, passionate and revealing lyrics .... ever!

Sejuta bintang di angkasa
Sinarnya mempesona
Sebutir bintang di taman seni
Cahayanya berseri
Biar masa bertahun beredar
Satu wajah satu zaman takkan pudar

Tetap jelas di ruang mata
Setiap gerak gaya
Bergetaran merdu sinar
Di persada budaya
Hingga kini menjadi sebutan
Tetap terpahat namamu di ingatan

Kaulah satu satunya
Di antara berjuta
Insan teristimewa
Patah tak tumbuh lagi
Hilang belum berganti
Kerana kau tersendiri
Kau kebanggaan kita
Kau budayawan bangsa
Engkau lagenda

Kaulah satu satunya
Di antara berjuta
Insan teristimewa





Ironically, in doing the Legenda album, safe to say that by now, with her body of work, including Ratu, Ku Mohon and Cinta Kita... Sheila Majid is also a legend in her own right.



p/s my one quibble, I really think it should be "Lagenda" and not "Legenda"... and the following medley showcased why I love Sheila Majid: