MUMBAI:The US-based CDMA Development Group (CDG) has reported that the CDMA2000 subscriber base reached 225 million users worldwide at the end of 2005, a 25 million increase over 3Q and 78 million more than the previous year.
According to the report, in some markets, like India, CDMA has captured 30 per cent in less than three years, states CDG. Asia remains the largest market for CDMA with 131 million users, followed by North America with 108 million subscribers. The Caribbean and Latin America region added over 16 million CDMA users last year, which represents a 38 per cent increase from the previous year.
The high demand for CDMA2000 has greatly contributed to the continuous advances of CDMA worldwide. Last year the CDMA base grew by 26 per cent, and in the past five years CDMA market share increased from 11 per cent in 2000 to 14 per cent in 2005.
CDMA2000 is deployed in 67 countries across all continents, and while Asia and North America remain the largest markets for CDMA2000, 27 million (about 10 per cent) of CDMA2000 subscribers reside in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, Europe and the Middle East, and this number is growing rapidly, especially in Latin America.
The number of CDMA2000 1xEV-DO subscribers nearly doubled in the past year and reached over 24 million, as CDMA2000 operators continued to deploy and expand their broadband services, finds CDG. Driven by the strong demand for CDMA2000, the total CDMA subscriber base grew to 302 million worldwide.
"2005 was a record year for CDMA2000 in terms of the number of networks deployed and subscriber growth. CDMA2000 now serves more than 10% of wireless subscribers worldwide, adding new users faster than any other wireless technology in the past. CDMA2000 has been the driving force behind the commercial success of 3G and now, with 1xEV-DO, it is leading the way in wireless broadband," said CDG executive director Perry LaForge.
Since its launch in 2000, CDMA2000 has dominated the 3G market and greatly contributed to the growth of CDMA worldwide. Today, CDMA2000 is said to control 82 per cent of the 3G market and to be adding new users at a rate of 8 million per month, faster than WCDMA and GSM in the first years of their introduction. More than 74 per cent of CDMA users access 3G today, compared to 61 per cent last year.
The CDMA2000 industry has entered a phase of rapid transition to advanced broadband wireless services, with 29 systems already commercial and 41 more being deployed. With wider coverage and broader range of devices, the number of 1xEV-DO users surged from 12 million in 2004 to 24 million at the end of 2005, and the number of users is growing at 4 million per quarter. As the trend continues, the percent of CDMA2000 users who access broadband will increase this year from 11 per cent to 20 per cent.
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.
