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Brunei Darussalam - Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband
Paul Budde Communication Pty Ltd., Feb 2012, Pages: 25
Telecom sector continues to benefit from Brunei’s healthy GDP per capita
This report looks at the telecommunications market in Brunei Darussalam. A small wealthy nation in South East Asia, Brunei made early moves to ensure that it was delivering up to date telecommunications services to its population. The target of 100% digitalisation was achieved in 1995. Telecommunications infrastructure and services throughout Brunei are of a generally high standard and the country ranks well in Asia in terms of both telecom service penetration and infrastructure facilities. Brunei’s mobile penetration, which stood at an already healthy 32% by 2001, has continued to grow strongly and coming into 2012 it had reached a penetration of 120%.
As a consequence, GDP growth has been slower than the regional and global averages. In fact GDP growth declined from 4.4% in 2006 to be almost zero in 2007. The 2008/2009 global economic started to impact on Brunei, despite it was not being heavily exposed to the global capital markets. Although the country’s banks were also well placed to manage any period of economic difficulty, the country was definitely not isolated from what was happening globally. The fall in oil prices triggered by the global economic crisis and subsequent decline in energy production saw Brunei’s GDP fall by almost 2% in 2008 and again in 2009. The economy recovered sufficiently for GDP growth to be positive again in 2010, returning an annual growth rate of nearly 3%. The IMF estimated that Brunei’s GDP had grown by a similar amount in 2011; it was forecasting 2% growth in 2012.
It is not surprising that the citizens of Brunei are strong consumers of telecom services, given the level of encouragement coming from the government. Despite this, if the country is to continue to maintain the pace required to be globally competitive, it must further restructure and generally liberalise the local telecom industry. Brunei’s telecom regulator, the Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry (AiTi), was established in 2003. Although seen as a positive step, the creation of a new regulator has not accelerated telecom reform to any extent.
The local market continues to be dominated by Jabatan Telekom Brunei, the incumbent telco that remains a division within the Ministry of Communications (MoC). In a significant move in 2006, the Department of Economic Planning and Development announced that the corporatisation of JTB had been approved. A move in the right direction; however, much remains to be done in the area of sector reform.
Market highlights:
Brunei’s booming mobile market reached a penetration of 120% by early 2012;
Around 85% of Brunei’s internet subscribers have high-speed broadband access;
Wireless broadband access has taken off and is seeing rapid take up;
The government has issued a National Broadband Blueprint;
The plan is looking to increase the ICT industry’s contribution to GDP to 6% by 2015;
Fixed-line penetration in Brunei, having reached a healthy 26% by 2001, has been in decline since then and had slipped to around 19% by 2011;
Economic data suggested that Brunei has managed to limit the damage the global financial crisis might otherwise have caused to the local economy;
However, there is strong pressure on the country to address economic issues, including diversifying its economic base and improving its annual growth rate.This report provides a comprehensive overview of the trends and developments in telecommunications and digital media markets in Brunei Darussalam.
Subjects covered include:
Key Statistics;
Market and Industry Overviews;
Regulatory Environment;
Major Players (fixed and mobile);
Infrastructure;
Mobile Voice and Data Markets;
Internet services including broadband;
Digital Media.
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