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.