Why Singapore's telco players must ride on 4G migration wave

Data usage consumption has doubled in the last 2 years.

According to CIMB, it expects the migration to 4G to benefit both consumers and operators. From a consumer’s point of view, 4G offers speeds 3-4 times that of 3G. For operators, 1) 4G’s network equipment is able to take on more data traffic when compared to 3G due to technological advancement, and 2) we gather that capex for 4G network equipment is lower than 3G’s.

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With the introduction of LTE, which heralds faster speeds, we believe mobile data consumption will increase further. Data usage per smartphone user has almost doubled over the last two years to about 1-2GB/month vs. <1GB/month.

We think this was stimulated by:
1) More variety and richer content available today vs. a few years ago when 3G handsets were first introduced

2) New devices, i.e. the swing in consumer preference from Blackberry devices to Androids and iPhones. Users of Blackberry devices consume about half the volume of data vs. Android and iPhones. But as Android devices gain market share at the expense of Blackberries, overall data usage is rising.

According to mobile data analysis firm Arieso, iPhone 5 users use 50% more data than iPhone 4S users, based on a large European study. Samsung Galaxy S III users generate (uploading rather than downloading content) nearly four times the amount of
data than iPhone 3G users.

3) Generous data bundles offered with the quota was raised from 1GB to 12GB
at end-2009 when M1 and StarHub began offering the iPhone 

We also believe that the adoption of 4G handsets will be faster than the take-up of 3G because of: 1) the availability of mobile content today vs. a lack
of it during the early days of 3G, and 2) the greater availability of sleek 4G devices vs. when 3G was first launched.