Slowdown: China's mobile sector reaches speed limit; China's mobile market is coming down to earth. ARPU is falling as operators slash prices, while under-performing stocks and political interference are turning investors away. (Cover Story).

Wireless Asia, November, 2002 by Clark, Robert

Over-competition, capacity gluts, price wars, cross-subsidies, falling stocks; it's a familiar telecom story. Throw in serious losses from fraud, regulatory uncertainty, political interference and bureaucratic management, and you have a nightmare scenario.

Yet this is not one of telecom's stricken markets in Europe or North America. This is China, the newly-arrived telecom giant and until recently a safe haven from the global winter.

The strain is showing in China's mobile sector after years of breakneck growth. The signs are that, like mobile markets elsewhere around the world, it is reaching the limits of profitable growth.

On the surface the market looks healthy. After all, China Mobile and China Unicom are adding a combined 4 million...

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