Handphone market to jump

Handphone market to jump

SINGAPORE (DPA): India and China will ignite staggering growth
in the Asia-Pacific region's mobile telecommunications market,
with the area accounting for one third of the world's handphone
users by 2002, a U.S.-based research firm's report said on
Monday.

The number of handphone users, which has jumped from 6.3
million in 1993 to 137 million this year, will reach 234 million
in 2002, said GartnerGroup.

"For the next 10 years the growth drivers of Asia-Pacific
mobile telecoms market will be India and China," said the
information technology research firm's director, Bertrand Bidaud.

"By 2002, the Asia-Pacific will account for roughly a third of
the world's handphone users," he added.

The area's telecoms market was projected to grow from US$236
billion this year to about $330 billion in 2003, with 70 percent
of the market coming from telecoms services while equipment
accounts for the rest.