CDMA Wireless Powers Ahead

13th May , 2004

US : The CDMA Development Group (CDG) reported today that CDMA added nearly 13.5 million subscribers in 1Q 2004, reaching 202 million users worldwide.

In one year, from March 2003 to 2004, the CDMA subscriber base grew by a record 43 million users, or 31 percent, representing the highest growth for any leading cellular technology, and significantly higher than the 21percent gain for the whole industry. CDMA2000(r) further strengthened its leadership in 3G by adding 13 million users in the quarter to total 86.2 million, including 6.6 million CDMA2000 1xEV-DO users. Over 43 percent of the global CDMA subscriber base has access to CDMA2000 technologies.

"CDMA2000 operators reported yet another quarter of strong gains in net adds and revenue," said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. "CDMA2000 delivers results across all regions and markets, both developing and mature. We expect that this trend will continue with the significant growth of CDMA2000 in key markets such as China, India and the Americas."

Asia Pacific is the largest region for CDMA with 84.4 million users. The base is expanding at 44 percent annually, driven by continued growth in China and phenomenal advancements in India. China has more than 20 million CDMA users and in India, where there is now widespread deployment of CDMA2000, the CDMA base grew by 745 percent in 2003 and reached 9.3 million users in March 2004.

Asia also remains the largest and most advanced market for CDMA2000, with 19 CDMA2000 networks and 52 million users in 12 countries. 62 percent of CDMA subscribers in the region use CDMA2000, and in Japan and Korea, over 80 percent of the CDMA base use CDMA2000. Demand for advanced CDMA2000 1xEV-DO services is growing rapidly with more than 2 million new subscribers added in the past quarter.

KDDI continues to lead in net adds and data services in Japan. In the past year, KDDI's subscriber base grew 21 percent to 17 million, of which 13.5 million are using CDMA2000. 81 percent of KDDI's subscribers use data, and the operator controls 48 percent market share for data services in the country.

In the Americas, CDMA carriers added 7.2 million new customers in the first quarter, bringing the total number to 114.2 million. CDMA has become the dominant technology in the region.

CDMA expanded its leadership, in North America reaching 81.4 million users with market share growing to 46 percent.

Latin America and the Caribbean have more than 33 million CDMA users in 20 countries.

Latin America has the largest number of CDMA2000 networks commercially deployed, with 26 CDMA2000 1X and two CDMA2000 1xEV-DO networks in 16 countries. VIVO, the largest operator in Latin America, controls 45 percent of the market in Brazil and continues to capture 54 percent of net adds in markets it competes in.

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