Rachel Hou / Shanghai Daily news

Delegates attending the Eighth Asia Pacific Telecommunications Roundtable predict that Asia will soon become the largest market for both mobile phones and fixed line handsets, providing an estimated half of the new subscribers in the next five years.
As well, the participants suggest that Asian countries like China and India are starting a new trend of integrating mobile phone services with fixed-line services, which will become the growth engine of the global telecom industry in the near future. They also believe China will soon play a crucial role in the global telecom industry.
The conference, held in Shanghai yesterday, serves as a forum for the exchange of ideas between telecom industry leaders from both home and abroad. Yang Xiong，the Vice Mayor of Shanghai, was the keynote speaker at the roundtable discussion.