Use of Mobile Internet Access will Grow 10X in Bangladesh, 8X in Pakistan, 5X in India by 2020

Use of mobile Internet access services presently ranges from five percent in Bangladesh and Pakistan to 125 percent in Thailand. By 2020, adoption will be in excess of 100 percent in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, GSMA now estimates.

By 2020, use of mobile Internet access will have reached 50 percent in Bangladesh 39 percent in Pakistan and India.

The point is that no matter how great current challenges might appear, mobile Internet access is becoming widespread across South Asia, even in regions where adoption presently is low.

Though spectrum access, mobile operator investments, awareness of the value of the Internet and cost of handsets and service remain issues, they do not appear to be insurmountable obstacles.

If GSMA is correct, we do not have to worry about "killer apps" or the price of smartphones. Mobile operators will need more spectrum to meet the new demand, and some improvements in price-value relationships will have to continue.

But nowhere, it seems, have any obstacles been able to stop widespread use of mobile Internet apps and services.