Making the connection into the region

ASEAN's attraction as a lucrative telecom market is also due to the surging economic growth, rapid urbanization and a growing middle class as well as tech-savvy and well-heeled younger generation eager to sample new technological products.

In Singapore and Malaysia, 95 percent of the online population possess a laptop or PC; the global average is 85 percent. In Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, 90 percent of online users have mobile phones, a higher percentage than in developed markets.

Internet and social media services are used daily: Gmail, Facebook, LinkedIn, Skype, YouTube and eBay. In addition, "home-grown services" are also highly popular, like Malaysia's Mudah e-marketplace, Thailand's multimedia and entertainment portal Sanook! and Vietnam's VnExpress news portal.

With ASEAN members likely to focus on investing in and upgrading their infrastructure and network, there should be more opportunities for Chinese telecom vendors, says Ashadi Cahyadi, senior research manager, telecoms, at International Data Corporation Asia/Pacific, a market research, advisory and analysis firm.

"Most of them are present in ASEAN," Ashadi added. "For example, some operators in Thailand are customers of Huawei and ZTE."

Also, Thailand's local regulator has just awarded 3G licenses, which means more business for telecom equipment makers.

In Brunei, the current ASEAN chair, Huawei has won a four-phase end-to-end turnkey services project to create a network for over 40,000 subscribers. The first phase of the Brunei Next Generation Broadband Network project for Telekom Brunei is already completed.

In ASEAN, Ashadi said telecom network equipment will be the key driver for growth for Chinese companies. Other opportunities would be in consumer devices such as smartphones and tablets.

"As most of the mobile users in this region are price sensitive, Chinese smartphones still have some room to grow," Ashadi said. "However, most of the smartphone users are quite savvy in terms of value for money. So it will also be a challenge for Chinese smartphones to maintain their product quality and after sales services."