US : The CDMA Development Group (CDG) reported that CDMA wireless technology demonstrated strong growth across all regions during the first quarter of 2005, adding more than 16.4 million new users and reaching 256.6 million subscribers. This growth represents a 7 percent increase in the quarter and 27 percent over one year. CDMA2000’s adoption rate increased to over 7 million new users per month.

“New CDMA2000® network deployments and a growing demand for advanced data services and applications, as well as greater selection of feature-rich devices and declining handset prices, are all factors contributing to the success of CDMA2000 and CDMA,” said Perry LaForge, executive director, CDG. “CDMA2000 will continue to drive the growth of CDMA and we expect that the CDMA subscriber base will reach 300 million users, 70 percent of whom will access 3G CDMA2000 technologies by year’s end.”

The CDMA2000 base grew by a record 21.6 million new users in 1Q 2005 as new and existing subscribers opted for 3G services. This translates to growth of 7.2 million new CDMA2000 subscribers per month, compared to 6.5 million in 4Q 2004 and 4.6 million a year ago. At the end of March, there were 168.4 million 3G CDMA2000 subscribers representing 66 percent of all cdmaOne™ and CDMA2000 users worldwide.

Asia remains the largest region for CDMA with 109.5 million subscribers. During the first quarter of 2005, 7.5 million new users were added in the region, an increase of 7 percent in the last quarter and 30 percent over a year. KDDI in Japan continues to add new subscribers to their 3G “au” services and the CDMA base in India is growing rapidly as operators expand the coverage to new areas and introduce new service plans. CDMA2000 now serves more than 76 percent of all CDMA subscribers in the region.

North America follows Asia’s lead, adding 5.2 million new users to reach 97.3 million subscribers at the end of March. As a result of the strong performance of CDMA operators, CDMA strengthened its leadership in the United States and now accounts for 49 percent of subscribers compared to 47 percent one year ago. CDMA2000 is by far the most widely adopted 3G technology in the region, serving more than 72 million users.

Latin America had yet another strong quarter and remains the fastest growing region for CDMA. In the first three months of 2005, the base grew by 8 percent (38 percent compared to 1Q 2004) to reach 45.7 million users . With 37 commercial networks and 8 more in deployment, Latin America leads in the number of CDMA2000 networks per region.