Market Entry Considerations

The Asia Pacific wireless telecom industry will grow from $160 billion in annual revenues in 2005 to more than $240 billion by the end of 2010. During this time frame the subscribers will grow from 857 million to more than 2.5 billion. Penetration rates also vary widely by country. For example, in 2005 the penetration rate in Hong Kong was more than 115%, while India was approximately 6.8%.

3G mobile services has now been introduced in much of Asia Pacific and this is driving many new services. These new service requirements are driving the hunger for value added services and new technologies to help the mobile operator grow data ARPU and the subscriber base.

Sales "Eco Systems" are very important to the success of companies as they seek to penetrate this fast growing market. There are few "Eco" partners who span multiple countries. This is mainly due to the differences in culture, language and needs in each market.

The "in market eco system" consisting of the required distributors, system integrators and / or value added resellers is an important part of a company's market entry assessment. Usually, for each country, a customized market entry plan needs to be developed which includes the identification of the "market eco system. " This market entry plan is essential for a company's successfully securing orders for products and services. These "eco system partners" must also have access to the wireless operators and / or appropriate government agencies that will be issuing RFIs and RFPs, when they are required. It is the responsibility of the consultants and/or agents to make sure that inputs from their partners are forwarded to the authors of the RFIs and RFPs for consideration.