WSJ.com - China Cellphone Use to Double: "BANGKOK, Thailand -- The number of mobile-phone users in China, the world's largest mobile-phone market, is expected to double by 2007 to 500 million from a current 250 million.
'Four [million] to five million new subscribers are added each month. ... That's a significant growth, and there's no such growth in the world like this for mobile users,' said George Huang, vice president of Nortel Networks (China) Ltd., a unit of Nortel Networks Corp.
Mr. Huang said the penetration rate in China is low, at around 20%, and there is substantial room for the Chinese market to grow. China's mobile-phone market is expected to enter the maturity stage during the next four years, when the penetration rate reaches roughly 50%.
Despite the expected growth in coming years, one of the most challenging tasks for mobile operators in China is how to maintain their average revenue per unit, or ARPU, Mr. Huang said.
Most of the high-end customers have already subscribed to mobile services, while new subscribers are mostly low-end prepaid customers who dragged ARPU down to around $12 a month currently from $20 during previous years."