Smartphones can rescue the global economy. Here’s how

By 2017, China will achieve $22 billion in economic productivity only by reducing traffic congestion; about 10 million additional homes will be powered in India by reducing power thefts; about $10 billion will be saved in Japan in healthcare alone, and every South Korean student will save up to $12,000 a year in education cost.

If you are wondering about what is contributing to these growth figures, just look at the phone in your hand.

According to new research just released by the GSMA, the growth of mobile enabled Connected Life in Asia has the power to achieve the following results, even as the region is going through a major transformation in mobile penetration.

The number of unique mobile subscribers in Asia Pacific has outpaced the rest of the world over the last decade, reaching 1.5 billion at the end of 2012.
What’s more, by 2017, it is expected that Asia Pacific will reach 1.9 billion unique mobile subscribers, accounting for almost half of the predicted global total of 3.9 billion.

The new figures are part of the latest assessment published a comprehensive assessment of the impact of the mobile industry on the Asia Pacific and part of another new report, ‘Mobile Economy: Asia Pacific 2013’.

The UAE already leads the globe with a massive 73 per cent penetration of mobile internet usage. While most connected homes in the country enjoy Internet download speeds of up to 100Mbps, efforts are on to soon increase the bandwidth by three to four times. The country’s infrastructure will soon be capable of delivering speeds of up to 1Gbps.

That is exactly what the GSMA hopes other countries to emulate. Anne Bouverot, Director General, GSMA in her statement urged regional governments and regulators to support mobile operators in meeting that full potential.

“Mobile is already having a profound impact across all Asia Pacific countries, with spectacular growth in service penetration, driven by investment in infrastructure and continued innovation in devices and services,” she says.

According to her, making the right decisions around regulatory frameworks and spectrum availability will encourage the mobile industry to continue investing in expanding and upgrading services across the region.

According to GSMA, strong growth of data as voice traffic slows down across the Asia Pacific region, while data usage has grown at a CAGR of nearly 142 per cent from 2010 to 2012. What’s more, 3G and 4G connections are expected to grow at 17 per cent annually over the next five years.

As of the end of 2012, the mobile industry had invested $80 billion in mobile infrastructure while it generated almost $1 trillion in GDP for Asia Pacific economies and contributed $100 billion to public funding.

With access to vital spectrum resources and regulatory policy focused on driving further investment, for the period through 2020, the mobile industry could contribute an additional $2.3 trillion to GDP and a further $200 billion to public funding.

As far as explanation of how China increased economic productivity by $22 billion, GSMA says that the introduction of mobile-enabled vehicle telematics could significantly reduce traffic by reporting critical data such as location, driving speed and direction.

Beijing experienced a traffic jam in 2012 that spanned over 100 kilometres and lasted more than 10 days and the average urban commute in the biggest Chinese cities is already around 80 minutes per day. Time saved by reducing traffic through mobile services will help Chinese commuters reclaim nearly two hours of their time every week and add as much as $22 billion of economic productivity.

Similarly, the study notes that India loses 24 per cent of the electricity it generates every year, costing its economy more than $17 billion, with power theft accounting for around half of these losses.

Mobile-enabled smart meters provide the wireless connectivity that allows utilities to detect and record theft and installing these meters could save enough electricity to power more than 10 million homes by 2017.

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