China's mandatory policy to register SIM cards in the country will cause turbulence both in the Chinese and global telecom markets, according to ABI Research.

"The Chinese SIM card market will experience an unsettling period from late 2016 up to early 2019," Dimitrios Pavlakis, ABI Research industry analyst, said. "Somewhat slower growth for 4G and the subsequent cannibalization of 3G shipments will characterize this chapter."

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According to Yahoo! Finance, the country's economic status will continue to affect most technology segments, and this will cause a decline of shipment and affect sales of SIM cards.

The mandatory SIM card registration policy is expected to take effect next year. If users refuse to register, Chinese users may be under penalty of account termination.

On the other hand, the government is also putting a lot of pressure on mobile network operators including China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom to widen their LTE penetration rates.

"Not all is bleak, however, and while LTE rollouts are still facing difficulties in certain Asia-Pacific regions, we foresee global 4G SIM card shipments accounting approximately 23% of the overall APAC shipments for 2016," Pavlakis said. He added that the figure would increase to about 45 percent in five years' time in the APAC region, "sitting above the 43% global 4G shipments, as 4G becomes dominant."

Meanwhile, the soaring global SIM card market is poised to top five billion shipments this year. Developing countries including the Asia Pacific, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and the Middle East are expected to maintain above average growth until 2021.

Tagssim card, Global SIM Card market, SIM card registration