Back to 3G.co.uk homepageSearch the whole 3G.co.uk websiteVisit 3G.co.uk's own mobile phone store for great deals3G phone reviews and the latest 3G phones here3G Forum for help and advice about all things 3GAll about 3G in the UK - latest news and phonesAll about 3G around the world - latest news and phonesAll about 4G - news and latest developmentsAll about WiMax - latest news and developments
Today's 3G News
3G Sponsored by SPIRENT
Find out how Spirent's test systems can accelerate your development of 3G devices.
Master Your 3G Network Challenges with Tektronix
Master Your 3G Network challenges with Tektronix' UTRAN Network & Service Analyser.
Test With The Best - Catapult
Catapult test solutions for Protocol Analysis – Protocol Monitoring –

8 out of 10 Cell Phone Customers Choose GSM Service
16 November , 2005

US WA : Wireless industry trade association 3G Americas reports that the GSM family of wireless technologies--GSM, GPRS, EDGE and UMTS/HSDPA--added more than 112 million new customers in three months (Q3 2005), increasing its global market share to 77.6% with more than 1.6 billion customers.

"The continuing growth of the GSM family of technologies is unprecedented, and not only in the wireless industry," commented Chris Pearson, of 3G Americas. "It was decades before fixed phone lines or even televisions reached more than a billion units sold, while more than 1.6 billion GSM-family customers are talking on cell phones today since the first GSM network launched in 1992. Now we are seeing a surge in next generation applications, and even more uses for the wireless mobile device including email, music, Internet browsing, and also mobile television."

With 381 million customer additions since Q3 2004, GSM added more new customers in the one-year period than the entire customer base of any other mobile digital technology. The GSM family of technologies is used by more than 670 mobile wireless service providers in 212 countries and territories, which clearly indicates that no other wireless technology matches GSM's scope and scale.

The Western Hemisphere continues to experience healthy GSM growth with more than 84.5 million new GSM customers between Q3 2004 and Q3 2005. This represents 94% of the more than 90 million net customer additions in the Americas region. With a 41% market share in the Americas, GSM is the number one technology in the region with an annual growth rate of 90%, which is more than three and a half times CDMA's growth rate.

Pearson added, "The Americas region has led the way for CDMA and TDMA operators transitioning to the GSM family of technologies. That trend continues in other parts of the world, such as the recent report by Telstra of Australia that they are replacing their CDMA mobile network with a national 3G GSM (UMTS) network."

"In Latin America and the Caribbean, GSM continues to lead the marketplace by providing excellent solutions for customers--quality, coverage, handset selection and exciting new services and features," stated Erasmo Rojas, Director of Latin America and the Caribbean. "A look at the statistics wholly supports this fact: GSM gained more than 58 million new customers for a 127% annual growth--three times the growth rate of CDMA at 41%."

GSM holds a 47% market share in the Latin American region, followed by TDMA with 26% and CDMA with 24.7%. The top five GSM markets in the region as of September 2005 were Brazil with 38.1 million GSM customers, followed by Mexico (22.6 million), Colombia (10.8 million), Argentina (7.5 million) and Chile (6.1 million).

In the United States and Canada, the new customers added for GSM over a one-year period through Q3 2005 totaled 26 million versus the market leader, CDMA, which added 14.9 million new customers.

The continued growth of GSM is contributing to the proliferation of EDGE and UMTS (WCDMA) high-speed wireless voice and data services. More than 100 operators in 65 countries have launched commercial EDGE networks, with another 83 networks in various deployment stages. These operators represent more than 870 million customers within their current subscriber base. Additionally, UMTS is demonstrating even more growth than GSM at the same point of maturation. At the end of Q3 2004, there were 11 million UMTS customers worldwide, nearly 17 million at the start of this year, and UMTS customers have more than doubled to nearly 35 million at the end of Q3 2005 compared to more than 17 million CDMA 1xEV-DO according to the UMTS Forum (as of September 6). To date, there are 92 operators offering commercial UMTS service around the world, with another 70 operators either pre-commercial, in deployment, or with planned UMTS networks. This makes UMTS the leading 3G technology today based on the number of operators, the number of customers and the anticipated market potential due to operator commitments.

UMTS will be further enhanced with HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) to deliver even higher speeds, lower latency, greater spectral capacity and lower costs for operators and their customers. The first UMTS/HSDPA deployments occurred in October 2005 with Cingular Wireless activating its HSDPA network in Dallas, Phoenix and Seattle, followed by O2/Manx Telecom on the Isle of Man. To date, another 46 HSDPA networks are planned or in deployment with additional ongoing trials.
Great Deals on the Latest 3G Handsets
Great Deals on the Latest 3G Handsets