Growth in 3G usage in the Philippines

Qualcomm, a wireless technologies company, expects growth of 3G usage in the Philippines and banks on this as one of its reasons for putting up a branch in the country according to Qualcomm president for Southeast Asia John Stefanac.

Emerging markets such as the Philippines are expected to provide as much as 70 percent of the expected increase in 3G users around the world, according to the World Cellular Information Services (WCIS).

WCIS, which sources its data from the global mobile industry, said that 3G subscribers will grow to 1.4 billion by 2012 from the current 720 million.

“There is a lot of interesting innovations that is going to be very applicable to emerging markets like the Philippines, which is an important emerging market. Wireless is becoming more and more part of everybody’s lives,” he told reporters.

“People in the emerging market have no less the desire to access the Internet as anybody else in any other more developed markets,” Stefanac said.

Stefanac also predicted that a “dramatic shift” would occur in the capability of devices beyond mobile phones.

“We see consumer electronics convergence taking place, convergence of computing platforms and devices. We want to ensure a whole plethora of devices. We don’t think of 3G as just being these handsets. It is more than that in terms of capabilities,” he said.
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The emergence of mobile commerce, such as the transmission of cellphone credits and cash and other financial transactions over wireless phones and gadgets, add up to the increase in 3G usage.

Stefanac admits the 3G industry has its challenges because of several market segments. With Qualcomm as a technology innovation company, Stefanac plans to coordinate with the government ministries, regulators, operators, OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), media and the various institutions/establishments involved in the 3G ecosystem.