The Asia Pacific is home to 42% of all Internet users and with 1.4 billion mobile phone subscribers, the region also takes up a significant chunk of the worldwide cellular market. Mobile penetration is now 40% and average annual wireless growth over the last 5 years has been nearly 30%, according to the ITU Asia-Pacific Telecommunication and ICT Indicators report.

China and India combined account for more than 900 million mobile phone subscribers, which is close to a quarter of global total users. The Asia-Pacific region’s share of the worldwide mobile market is expected to surpass 50%, from the current 42%, within the next two years.

Figure: Distribution of ICTs by World Region, 2007

Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

India is the world’s fastest growing mobile market with an ARPU of around US$7, one of the lowest in the world, as competition intensifies among Indian wireless operators. However the over-billion Indian population offers great potential for growth with its relatively low 20% penetration rate, cited the ITU report.

In the lower-middle income economies of Asia, mobile growth has quickly eclipsed lagging Internet access and SMS has emerged as a value alternative to PC-based email in the region.

Filipinos sent a staggering 650 text messages per user per month, the highest in the world. Philippines is nicknamed ‘SMS capital of the world’ and the country has more than 54 million cellphone subscribers.

Non-voice applications via mobile phones, in particular text messaging or SMS, are increasing rapidly and now account for more than one quarter of mobile revenues for the region’s main wireless carriers.

The ITU has projected that global cellular subscriptions will hit 4 billion by the end of this year. A third of the world’s mobile phone subscriber base will be from the emerging BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) economies, representing 1.3 billion users.