HONG KONG: Mobile operators, handset makers, software companies and media groups will put their latest innovations on display at Mobile Asia Congress, the Asian segment of the world’s premier telecom event held in Barcelona every year.

The number of mobile connections in the Asia Pacific is expected to cross the two billion mark this year, more than triple the 2003 figure, according to statistics released by organiser GSMA, a trade association for the global mobile industry.

By 2013, GSMA estimates that the number of mobile connections in the region will exceed three billion and account for half of the world’s connections. “The figures say how important Asia is as a region. If you couple that with the nearly two billion people in Asia who don’t have a mobile connection, it just really creates such a growth opportunity for the industry,” Michael O’Hara, GSMA’s chief marketing officer, said in an interview.

The opportunities also came from the vast diversity in mobile usage and the macro-economic variations among the 47 countries in the region, O’Hara said.

In places like Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia and Taiwan, many people use multiple SIM cards and are constantly looking for top-end designer mobile products. But GSMA statistics show that only 46 per cent of people in China and 30 per cent of the population in India have access to mobile technology. This gives rise to an enormous potential market for low-cost mobiles for the under-privileged in the remote rural areas of the two countries.

Bertram Lai, Hong Kong-based analyst with CIMB GK Securities, said growth in China’s mobile industry would come from rural areas, which have a 22 per cent penetration rate at present. “Growth is supported by the government’s policy to increase rural income and consumption,” Lai said.