Research and Markets Adds Report: Cambodia and Laos Telecommunications Report Q4 2010

via CAAI

Dec 03, 2010 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) -- Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Cambodia and Laos Telecommunications Report Q4 2010 Report Q4 2010" report to its offerings.

In a release, Research and Markets noted that report highlights include: "Cambodia Telecommunications Report" provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, telecommunication associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Cambodia's telecommunications industry.

Little new data regarding the telecommunications markets of Cambodia and Laos have been disclosed since BMI's last update, with the situation in Cambodia urgently needing clarification as various players offered up wildly conflicting views on the size of the market, which range from 3.7 million to 7.1 million subscribers.

Several operators, which rely heavily on prepaid services for growth, have yet to eliminate inactive and unregistered subscriber data from their records, and they continue to report heavily distorted user numbers. Others such as Mfone and Axiata (hello) have seen significant reductions in subscriber numbers as a result of record-keeping clean-ups, while smaller operators remain uncommunicative. BMI continue to believe that the market supported 5.4 million subscribers at the end of 2009, a view also held by VimpelCom of Russia.

The market grew on the back of aggressive price competition in 2009 and, with new curbs on tariff changes effected early in 2010, BMI expect more moderate growth going forward. The damage to Cambodian mobile ARPUs has already been done, however, with hello recording one of the lowest YE09 rates on the market, at $4.20, and Mfone following close behind. Growing ARPUs will be difficult as customers have become accustomed to very low tariffs and this is reflected in the ARPU forecasts, which now include hello for the first time. BMI believe ARPUs will fall from an average of $5.27 in 2009 to $2.62 by 2014, although a small uptick may be seen from 2014 as the situation stabilizes.

Report information: http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/3905f8/cambodia_and_laos  ((Comments on this story may be sent to newsdesk@closeupmedia.com ))