SMB Broadband Blowout in Southeast Asia
Between 2006 and 2010, the number of broadband-enabled SMBs in Southeast Asia (SEA) will increase by over 850,000. Emerging countries such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam will fuel this growth, with adoption by SMBs in these countries comprising over 55% of overall broadband SMBs in the region. Spending on broadband by these SMBs will exceed US billion by 2010, with Indonesia contributing the lion's share of spending.
These results are based on surveys conducted by AMI-Partners over 15 countries in the Asia/Pacific region, which examined emerging trends, adoption of, and usage of ICT by SMBs. "Within the Southeast Asia region, Singapore stands out from the rest of its neighbors with its impressive broadband penetration rates which is forecasted to exceed 75% by 2010," said Cindy Sim, a Singapore-based analyst for AMI-Partners. "This growth will be spurred by continued positive government intervention, dropping access prices, growing exposure to the World Wide Web and increasing importance and necessity of the Internet to SMBs in terms of brand establishment, e-commerce and communication with suppliers and customers. Malaysia and Thailand were ranked 2nd and 3rd in terms of SMB broadband penetration in 2005, and will continue to retain their respective positions in 2010. Vietnam, which was ranked lowest in terms of SMB broadband penetration, will bring up the rear."
In terms of Internet access modes, narrowband access is clearly in decline. In 2010, narrowband penetration is expected to comprise less than one-quarter of SMBs in SEA who access the Internet for their business, down from 50 percent in 2005. This will be driven by factors such as dropping prices of broadband, increasing use of applications such as VOIP and hosted solutions which will drive the need for speed and bandwidth. Not surprisingly, the adoption of narrowband is more widespread amongst SBs than MBs.
For the medium business in SEA employing between 100-999 employees, leased lines will be a popular consideration, with expected compound annual growth exceeding 45% from 2005-2010. Not surprisingly, leased-line penetration is highest in Singapore, followed by Malaysia. This will be driven largely by the need for scalable bandwidth as well as consistent and reliable quality of service (QoS). Wireless broadband is expected to take off by 2010, with service providers in most countries in the region already rolling out or planning to roll out HSDPA, W-CDMA or WiMax.
The increasing adoption of broadband will coincide with the proliferation of related applications offered by the likes of xSPs. This will include software offered on a utility basis, as well as managed security solutions.
Source: AMI-Partners
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