COSTA MESA, Calif., Dec. 6, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- During the ninth annual 3G World Congress & Exhibition, held in November in Hong Kong, the CDMA Development Group (CDG) (www.cdg.org) and wireless industry leaders demonstrated that 3G is here, with more than 160 operators and 140 million users across Asia, Europe, North America and Latin America. This year's Congress featured 3G CDMA technologies, including CDMA2000(r), TD-SCDMA and WCDMA, and focused on market opportunities and future technology evolution. More than 7,000 delegates from around the world participated in workshops, attended panels and presentations and visited exhibits from the world's leading wireless carriers, infrastructure vendors, device manufacturers, solution providers and content developers.
"The commercial success of CDMA2000 is proof of the tremendous potential for 3G," said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. "3G CDMA technologies are transforming the telecommunication market allowing carriers to provide affordable voice services in underserved areas, drive the convergence of fixed telephony with wireless, and enable the introduction of new advanced data services. CDMA2000 is leading, and will continue to lead, in this evolution."
CDMA2000 dominates the 3G market today with rapid deployments, an expanding subscriber base and the introduction of high-speed data technologies. There are over 100 CDMA2000 operators providing advanced 3G services to more than 127 million users in 50 countries around the world, including developing markets such as India, China and Latin America. The base is growing at 5 million new users per month, exceeding many analysts' forecasts. CDMA2000 operators lead in the introduction of high-speed data technologies. 17 operators have deployed CDMA2000 1xEV-DO, which constantly delivers 300-600 Kbps and sometimes up to 2.4 Mbps data rates in commercial networks. With future enhancements, 1xEV-DO will offer Voice over IP (VoIP) as well as increased uplink data speeds which will support new 3G services such as video telephony. More information about CDMA2000 is available on the CDG website at www.cdg.org.
CDMA2000 operators presenting at the Congress included Dr. Chungming An, CEO, Asia Pacific Broadband Wireless (Taiwan); Adel Bazerghi, vice president, wireless technology development, Bell Mobility (Canada); Zhang Fan, CTO, China Unicom; Gennady Golant, deputy managing director and technical director, Delta Telecom (Russia); Dr. Hideo Okinaka, vice president and general manager, strategic planning division, KDDI (Japan); Gil Sharon, deputy CEO and CMO, Pelephone (Israel); Steve Falk, vice president, global development, Sprint (USA); and Gerry Flynn, director, advanced technology strategy and standards, Verizon Wireless (USA). They highlighted their successes with CDMA2000, future plans for migration to high-speed data and evolution to new advanced services.
A number CDG member companies made announcements at the Congress. Telstra in Australia announced the rollout of its CDMA2000 1xEV-DO network. Verizon Wireless formed a partnership with SK Telecom to offer ringback tones in North America, and Sprint launched Research In Motion's BlackBerry(r) handset. QUALCOMM announced that major infrastructure vendors, including Airvana, Ericsson, Hitachi, Ltd., Lucent Technologies, Motorola, Nortel Networks and Samsung joined forces to develop CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision A network solutions. The 3G World Congress & Exhibition 2005 is scheduled for November 14-18, 2005, at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre in Hong Kong. For more information, please visit the event Web site at www.3gcongress.com.
About CDG
The CDMA Development Group is a trade association formed to foster the worldwide development, implementation and use of CDMA technologies. The more than 100 member companies of the CDG include many of the world's largest wireless carriers and equipment manufacturers. The primary activities of the CDG include development of CDMA features and services, public relations, education and seminars, regulatory affairs and international support. Currently, there are more than 500 individuals working within various CDG subcommittees on CDMA-related matters. For more information about the CDG, contact the CDG News Bureau at +1-714-540-1030, ext. 17 and 25, or vchristopherson@bockpr.com and jvotava@bockpr.com, or visit the CDG Web site at www.cdg.org.
Note to editors: cdmaOne is a trademark of the CDG. CDMA2000 is a registered trademark of the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA-USA).