US : New GSA survey confirms 64 WCDMA networks and 43 EDGE-enabled networks in commercial service.

Inset is Alan Hadden, President of the GSA who is quoted below.

Results from the latest survey by GSA Global mobile Suppliers Association, show that the GSM family continues to be the de-facto standard for operators upgrading their networks for voice and enhanced mobile data services. Service providers across the Americas, Asia, Australasia, Europe, and the Middle East have all deployed high-speed mobile networks based on WCDMA and EDGE open standards.

GSA confirms that there are 64 WCDMA networks in commercial service in 31 countries, delivering 3G services to over 16.26 million* subscribers at 31 December 2004 (2.68 million* at end 2003). A further 9 networks are close to service launch and at "pre-commercial" stage. This confirms that 56 per cent of the 129 WCDMA license holders in 43 countries have already launched, or are close to launching, their services.

GSA also reports the continuing globalization of EDGE and confirms that 123 GSM/GPRS operators in 72 countries have committed to the EDGE upgrade, equivalent to more than half of the number of commercial GPRS networks globally. A total of 43 networks in 32 countries have launched commercial EDGE-enabled services. WCDMA and EDGE are complementary technologies ensuring lower capital expense and optimum flexibility and efficiencies. An increasing number of GSM operators are delivering 3G services on a combined WCDMA/EDGE network.

The wide variety of WCDMA and EDGE devices and increasing availability in commercial volumes from several manufacturers is a major factor supporting accelerating 3G deployments and service offerings. Related research by GSA identifies 108 WCDMA devices and 62 EDGE-enabled devices are shipping or announced in the market today, serving all market segments.

Alan Hadden, President, GSA, said, "This latest survey underlines the continuing success of the GSM family and its evolution to 3G. WCDMA is the most widely accepted 3G/IMT-2000 technology globally. WCDMA and EDGE are mature technologies ensuring that operators are competitive and can re-use their GSM core network and services."