CDMA2000 celebrates a quarter billion 3G subscribers
May 23, 2006
The CDMA Development Group (CDG) announced that the number of CDMA2000 3G subscribers worldwide surpassed 250 million in the 1Q 2006. CDMA2000 operators added more than 25 million new users in the first three months of the year, driven by strong growth in the Americas and Asia. CDMA2000 1xEV-DO gained a record six million new subscribers to reach 30 million users.
"CDMA2000 is the fastest-growing technology among global wireless standards, and it leads in technology and service innovation, introducing new services and devices to the market faster than any other technology," said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. "We see the CDMA2000 momentum continuing to grow across all markets, with acceleration brought on by market events such as the migration to mobile broadband, the growing introduction of all-IP and multimedia devices, and continued rapid expansion into frequencies such as 450 and 2100 MHz.
"In the first five years of commercial introduction, CDMA2000 grew much faster than GSM and WCDMA. In the past seven months alone, CDMA2000 networks added more subscribers than WCDMA gained in the four years since it was first introduced. A number of factors have contributed to CDMA2000 success. Solid performance, ease of migration, backwards compatibility and availability of a broad range of devices are just a few."
CDMA2000 Global Growth Indicators
-- With 250 million users, CDMA2000 continues to hold a dominate share of the 3G market.
-- In North America, CDMA2000 has captured 42% of the market and in Asia and Latin America, it has a 13% of share.
-- Asia remains the largest market for CDMA2000 technologies, and with the accelerated growth in India and gains in Japan and Korea, it continues to lead.
1xEV-DO Contributes To CDMA2000 Growth
-- More than 12% of CDMA2000 subscribers use 1xEV-DO globally.
-- In Korea, 1xEV-DO accounts for 44% of SK Telecom's base.
-- Verizon Wireless in the U.S. recently reported that 6.2 million, or 12% of its retail base, use 1xEV-DO devices.
-- 1xEV-DO is expanding in Latin America with 11 1xEV-DO commercial networks and a subscriber base growing at 40% per quarter.
-- Analysts expect that 1xEV-DO will reach 60 million subscribers worldwide and the percent of CDMA2000 users who access broadband will increase to 20% this year.
LaForge commented, "CDMA2000 leads in the 3G and broadband market today, and with next-generation technologies coming to market over the next two years, it will continue to lead in the future."
There were 318 million cdmaOne and CDMA2000 subscribers globally at the end of March 2006. Asia Pacific has 136 million users, North America has reached 112 million subscribers and Latin America and the Caribbean base grew 40% last year to reach 64 million users.
Analysts predict that the number of 3G CDMA users will continue to grow rapidly and CDMA will capture greater market share. By 2008, CDMA technologies are expected to have over 1.2 billion users and capture 40% market share.
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