1. Asia
ISOM 591
April 10, 2000 1

2. The Asian Region 59% of the world’s population
29% of the world economy
25% of the world’s telephones
90% in lower income regions
China and India have 2/3s of the Asian region’s population, but only 12% of the wealth and telephone lines
growing economy 2

3. East Asia China Hong Kong S.A.R. Japan Mongolia North Korea
South Korea
Taiwan

4. South Asia
Bangladesh
Bhutan
India
Maldives
Nepal
Pakistan
Sri Lanka

5. Central Asia Afghanistan Iran Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan

6. Southeast Asia Brunei Cambodia Indonesia Laos Malaysia Myanmar
Philippines
Singapore
Thailand
Vietnam

7. The Asian Region Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
The Giants: China and India
The Four Tigers: Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan
Emerging: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philipines, Thailand 2

8. Hong Kong World’s eighth largest trading economy
world’s largest container port and busiest cargo airport
regional headquarters for hundreds of corporations
gateway to China
international telecom traffic growing with the growth of the Chinese economy 2

9. Hong Kong
established as a British Crown Colony in the 19th century, Hong Kong has now reverted to China
“one country, two systems”
Chinese Special Administration Region
50 year grace period of transition
how will the two very different attitudes toward information delivery, particularly media content, be reconciled? 3

10. Hong Kong
OFTA (Office of Telecommunications Authority) is responsible for telecom regulation
modeled after the UK’s Often and Australia’s Austel
competitive, liberalized telecom industry
no foreign ownership restrictions 4

11. Hong Kong
Cable and Wireless has a 57.5% ownership in Hong Kong Telecom, with the Chinese International Trust and Investment Company with 12.5% ownership
HKTel has sole license for international telecom
largest concentration of wireless
cell phones and pagers
GSM and AMPS cellular standards 5

12. Hong Kong
traffic to China accounts for more than 50% of the outbound calls
HKT International has a monopoly until 2006 6

13. HONG KONG'S MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS
gained popularity in 1986, and attracted a subscriber base of 1000.
By 1997, users had increased to 1,436,782.
One in every six Hong Kong residents is now a mobile phone user.
The city holds the world record for the number of mobile phone users per head of population.

14. Republic of Korea http://www.gcc.go.kr/ (South Korea)
one of the Asian tigers
one of the fastest growing economies
investments in telecommunications
large teledensity
large number of cell phones
pagers

15. Repubic of Korea government leadership in Information Technology
KTA (Korean Telecommunications Authority)
major exporter of telecommunications equipment
TDX-10 digital electronic switching system
cable subscribers and satellite broadcasting

16. Repubic of Korea: Goals
upgrade to an intelligent network
ISDN
portable communications network
launch their own satellite
to become an information society
Korean Information Society Development Institute

17. South Korea Korean Telecommunications Authority started as a monopoly
1979 Interim law for Expansion of Telecommunications facilities
1980 Subscribers could buy their own telephones
1982 Data Communications Corporation of Korea DACOM was established by a consortium of the private and public sectors
1990 Structural Reform Act created a duopoly system

18. North Korea a source of information

19. Singapore: The City-State
separated from the Malaysian Federation in 1965
economy heavily dependent on trade
telecom needed to diversity the economy
moving into finance, manufacturing, and tourism
movement toward value-added, knowledge-based and internationalization of local companies
a maritime communications center 7

20. Singapore: The City-State
Singapore Telecom has a strategic plan for using telecom to develop the economy
island-wide ISDN, fiber optic networks, , Internet access
National Computer Board has established computer networks as part of its strategy
National Science and Technology Board has funded science and technology parks 8

21. Singapore Liberalisation Regulatory Framework Singapore One
National Telecommunication Network and Services
International Telecommunication Network and Services
Mobile Communications

22. Taiwan

23. China http://lark.cc.ukans.edu/~eastasia/linkcall.html