Contact Information: Contact: Vicki Livingston +1 262 242 3458
66% Share of Market for GSM Family of Technologies in Western Hemisphere
GSM Technologies on Track to Break Half a Billion Subscriptions in the Americas by End of 2008
| Source: 3G Americas
BELLEVUE, WA--(Marketwire - May 21, 2008) - 3G Americas, a wireless industry trade
association representing the GSM family of technologies including LTE,
today announces total market share for the GSM family equal to 66% of the
entire cellular market in the Western
Hemisphere. This represents a 9% increase in market share since the
first quarter of 2007, according to Informa Telecoms and Media's World
Cellular Information Service. With nearly 450 million subscriptions at the
end of the first quarter of 2008, Informa forecasts that GSM and UMTS/HSPA
are on track to break 500
million subscriptions in the Western Hemisphere by the end of this year
with a 70% share of market.
GSM and UMTS/HSPA technologies grew subscriptions by 35% annually as of the
first quarter of this year in the Americas, adding 117 million new connections. On a global
basis, GSM and UMTS/HSPA added 673 million subscriptions in the year ending
March 2008 which represents 88% global share of market and annual growth of
28% according to Informa. There are 3.5 billion wireless cellular
connections worldwide today, of which nearly 3.1 billion are GSM/HSPA
connections.
Chris Pearson, President of 3G Americas, stated, "The tremendous benefits
offered by the GSM evolution to HSPA are being realized today by the
operators, and by their customers as data revenues continue to rise with
more applications and services being used."
Informa reports 209 million UMTS/HSPA subscriptions as of March 2008,
already 6% of the global wireless market. This will exceed 300 million by
the end of 2008 according to the analyst firm's forecasts, and one billion
by the year 2011.
Latin
America and the Caribbean is showing significant growth as GSM and
UMTS/HSPA achieved 83% share of market, up from a 72% share a year prior in
March 2007. The GSM family added more than 100 million subscriptions
annually as of March 2008, with the total subscriber base for GSM/HSDPA of
334 million, well over the size of the entire population of the United
States. CDMA lost 10 million subscriptions in Latin America and the
Caribbean over the twelve months ending March 2008 and has 51 million total
subscriptions or 12.7% share of market. TDMA also continued to lose
subscriptions over the twelve months ending March 2008, down by 16 million
to a remaining customer base of 10.7 million or 2.7% share of market.
"We continue to see many operators in Latin America and the Caribbean
upgrading their networks to 3G services with UMTS/HSDPA," stated Erasmo
Rojas, Director of Latin America and the Caribbean for 3G Americas. "We are
very pleased that in less than two years since the first HSDPA commercial
network launch in the region, there are today already more than one million
subscriptions for UMTS/HSDPA, and operators are experiencing an increase in
their data revenues as a result."
There are 25
operators in 14 countries of Latin America and the Caribbean with
commercial UMTS/HSPA networks today. On a global basis, 198 of the 225
commercial UMTS networks in 95 countries already offer HSDPA mobile
broadband.
About 3G Americas, LLC
3G Americas is an industry trade organization composed of
telecommunications service providers and manufacturers. The organization's
mission is to promote and facilitate the seamless deployment throughout the
Americas of the GSM family of technologies, including LTE. 3G Americas has
contributed to the successful commercial rollout of GSM across the Americas
and its place as the number one technology in the region, as well as the
global adoption of EDGE. The organization aims to develop the expansive
wireless ecosystem of networks, devices, and applications enabled by GSM
and its evolution to LTE. 3G Americas is headquartered in Bellevue, WA
with an office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Dallas, Texas. More
information is available at www.3gamericas.org.
3G Americas' Board of Governor members include Alcatel-Lucent, AT&T, Cable
& Wireless, Ericsson, Gemalto, Huawei, HP, Motorola, Nortel Networks,
Nokia, Openwave, Research in Motion (RIM), Rogers, T-Mobile USA, Telcel,
Telefónica, and Texas Instruments.