Emerging Asia-Pacific: Telecoms Market Forecasts 2026-2031

"Telecoms service revenue in emerging Asia–Pacific will grow to USD462 billion by 2031, supported by the upselling of premium services in a still-growing market."

This report focuses on operators’ core telecoms services in emerging Asia–Pacific (EMAP). It provides comprehensive telecoms market forecasts for the region and for 13 individually modelled countries for 2026–2031.

This report provides:

• a 5-year forecast of more than 200 mobile and fixed KPIs for the EMAP region as a whole and for 13 key countries
• an in-depth analysis of the trends, drivers and forecast assumptions for each type of mobile and fixed service, and for key countries
• an overview of operator strategies and country-specific topics, in order to highlight similarities and differences by means of a cross-country comparison
• a summary of results and key implications for mobile and fixed operators.

Geographical coverage

• Region
  • Emerging Asia–Pacific
• Individual countries (separate reports)
  • China
  • India
  • Indonesia
  • Malaysia
  • Philippines
  • Thailand
• Individual countries (data only)
  • Bangladesh
  • Cambodia
  • Nepal
  • Sri Lanka
  • Vietnam

Key performance indicators

Connections

• Mobile:
  • total (handset plus mobile broadband, excluding IoT), total including IoT, business
  • handset: smartphone, basic, smartphone share of handsets
  • mobile broadband
  • total, handset and broadband: 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G (and 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G share)
  • total and handset: prepaid, contract and prepaid share
  • IoT
  • penetration: total, prepaid, contract, handset, smartphone, mobile broadband, IoT
• Fixed:
  • voice: narrowband, VoBB, dial-up
  • broadband: ADSL/VDSL, FTTP/B, cable modem, FWA, 5G FWA, other technologies, total business connections
  • penetration: voice, broadband (business sites and households)
• Pay TV
  • operator, traditional

Traffic

• Outgoing minutes (fixed and mobile), MoU
• Cellular data and messaging traffic

Network-independent metrics

• GDP
• Population
• Households
• Business sites
• Exchange rates

Revenue/ARPU/ASPU

• Mobile:
  • total
  • share of GDP
  • per capita per month
  • prepaid, contract, prepaid share
  • 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G (and 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G share)
• Fixed:
  • total (retail plus wholesale)
  • share of GDP
  • per capita per month

Retail revenue

• Mobile:
  • total
  • share of GDP
  • per capita per month
  • per GB
  • 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G (and 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G share)
  • voice, voice per minute
  • data, data per GB
  • handset: total, voice, messaging, data, prepaid, contract, prepaid share
  • mobile broadband
  • IoT
• Fixed:
  • total
  • share of GDP
  • per capita per month
  • voice
  • dedicated connections
  • broadband: ADSL/VDSL, FTTP/B, cable modem, FWA, 5G FWA, other technologies
• ICT services
• Pay TV
  • operator, traditional

Wholesale revenue

• Mobile
• Fixed

ASPU

• Mobile:
  • total
  • voice
  • data
  • mobile broadband
  • IoT
  • handset: total, prepaid, contract, voice, messaging, data
• Fixed:
  • voice
  • broadband: ADSL/VDSL, FTTP/B, cable modem, FWA, 5G FWA, other technologies

ARPU

• Mobile:
  • total
  • prepaid, contract
  • 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G