Original telecommunications market research and telecommunications sector trend analysis for the national telecommunications industry.

Competitive intelligence, regional telecommunications company rankings and SWOT analyses on international and domestic telecommunications companies.

The Report provides industry professionals and researchers, operators, equipment suppliers and vendors, corporate and financial services analysts and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on the national telecommunications industry.

" The Asia Telecommunications Report is used for benchmarking industry views against BMI's independent forecasts; for market research and analysis of industry trends. It also provides competitive intelligence on leading companies. "
Chi-Wen Tsai, Managing Director, ROHDE & SCHWARZ Taiwan Ltd

Key Benefits of Report

-Benchmark BMI's Independent 5-Year Telecommunications Industry Forecast to test other views - a key input for successful budgeting and strategic business planning in the national telecommunications market.
-Target Business Opportunities & Risks in the Telecommunications Sector through our reviews of latest industry trends, regulatory changes, and major deals, projects and investments.
-Exploit Latest Competitive Telecommunications Intelligence & company SWOTS on your competitors and peers through company rankings by sales, market share, investments and leading products and services.

Executive Summary
Summary of BMI's key industry forecasts and trend analysis, covering ICT, fixed-line, mobile and internet markets, and headline news of key industry events from the latest quarter.

Market Overview
At-a-glance outlook of the structure, size and value of the industry, including an overview of key players and a snapshot of regional penetration rates for fixed-line, mobile and internet markets.

Business Environment Rankings
BMI provides a cross-border analysis of telecoms regulatory systems across regional markets, and their investor prospects, discussing the merits and downfalls of each country's business environment, and ranking them in order of competitiveness. The rankings take into account industry factors, such as Market Maturity, Growth Potential, Competitive Environment and Licensing Framework in addition to BMI's political and economic risk ratings.

BMI 5-Year Industry Forecast
Historic data series and 5-year forecasts to end-2012 for all key industry indicators (see list below), supported by explicit assumptions, plus analysis of key downside risks to the main forecast.

Fixed-Line Telephony - Telephone Lines ('000); Telephone Lines/100 Inhabitants;
Cellular Telephony - Phone Subscribers ('000); Mobile Phone Subscribers/ 100 Inhabitants; Mobile Phone Subscribers/100 Fixed Line Subscribers;
Internet Markets - Internet Users ('000); Internet Users/100 Inhabitants; Broadband Internet Subscribers ('000); Broadband Internet Subscribers/100 Inhabitants;
Multimedia Markets - PCs ('000); PCs/100 Inhabitants; TV households ('000s); Pay-TV subscribers ('000s); Pay-TV subscribers/100 inhabitants; Cable TV subscribers ('000s); Direct-to-Home Subscribers ('000s)
BMI 5-Year Macroeconomic Forecast
BMI forecasts for all headline macroeconomic indicators, including real GDP growth, inflation, fiscal balance, trade balance, current account and external debt.

Competitive Landscape & Rankings
Commentary on key operators highlighting ownership structures, latest available revenue figures, market share analysis and ARPU counts.

Company Profiles & SWOTS
Company profiles, including SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analyses, fully researched senior executives and contact details, business activity, leading products and services, and a record of all recent foreign direct investments and projects.

The Sector At A Glance

Key Insights On The Telecomunications Sector of France

In the third quarter of 2007, the number of customers subscribing to the services of France's three mobile operators increased by 0.69% to reach 50.536mn; this gave the country a mobile penetration rate of 83.3%. However, when the customers of mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) are included, the total number of French mobile subscribers grew by 1.3% in Q307 and by 3% in the 12 months ending September 2007. MVNOs continued to have a growing presence in the French mobile market during 2007, with MVNOs signing up a much larger share of new mobile customers than the three network operators. BMI believes that this trend will continue during 2008 and 2009, reflecting the fact that mobile penetration is still relatively low in France and that the market, consequently, still has room for further growth. We estimate that there were 54.253mn mobile subscribers in France at the end of 2007, giving the country a penetration rate equivalent to 89.4%. In this latest update on the French telecoms sector, we have extended our growth forecasts to cover the period ending 2012. We now believe that the 100% penetration threshold will be crossed sometime in 2009. By 2012, we anticipate a market of some 67.2mn mobile customers, and a penetration rate of 108.4%. It is important to remember however, that these figures contain a certain number of inactive prepaid users.

In October 2007, it was reported that France's telecoms regulator ARCEP had rejected a bid by broadband operator Iliad for France's fourth 3G licence. At the close of bidding in July 2007, it was revealed that Iliad's mobile unit, Free Mobile, had been the sole bidder for the country's fourth UMTS concession. At the time of submitting its bid, Iliad had set a condition on its application, which said it believed the success of the fourth mobile operator to be dependent on the winner being allowed to make a deferred annual payment of the licence fee instead of an up front one-off payment of EUR619mn. This condition is understood to have been unacceptable to the regulator.

Meanwhile, steady growth continues in the French broadband sector, with strong growth potential being reflected in the wave of investment activity (and consolidation) which has swept the sector in recent months. France's ADSL sector saw the arrival of a new competitor in September 2007, after it was reported that Bouygues Telecom had signed a wholesale ADSL agreement with neuf Cegetel to support Bouygues' residential offering. For its part, neuf Cegetel has continued to invest in the development of alternative broadband technologies such as fibre-to-the-home (FTTH). In September 2007, it was reported that neuf Cegetel had launched a new Wi-Fi service while in July 2007 it was revealed that neuf was cooperating with mobile operator SFR to deploy a commercial WiMAX network in France.

France sits in second place in our business environment rankings for Western Europe. Among other things, France benefits from having some of the highest fixed-line and broadband penetration rates in Western Europe. However, the country is let down by its mobile penetration score, which, even including the customers of MVNOs, is still by far the lowest in Western Europe.