And GSM Shall Rule Them All
GSM-based technologies account for a whopping 81 percent of the world’s 4 billion mobile subscriptions, according to numbers released today by Wireless Intelligence. Coming in as the runner-up is Qualcomm’s CDMA, with 10 percent of the world’s subscribers, 100 million of whom are in North America.
The research firm, which is owned by the GSM Association, also predicts that by 2010 there will be 5 billion mobile phone subscribers, connecting the world far more easily than efforts to give each child or person a PC. The world added the last 1 billion subscribers between the third quarter of 2007 and the end of 2008, making mobile phone subscription growth a bright spot in dark times.
Stacey, Global mobile subs are 20% over stated. More in emerging markets. I urge you not to use their figures. I have been following wireless subs for over 10 years. If you wish to chat – Om can tell you how to reach me.
GSM isn’t a family in the chart, but I suspect 3G networks such as UMTS were counted as GSM.
@Sergey
No, UMTS is part of what’s listed as the WCDMA family.
what is this ‘other’ with over 5% or the USA/Canada market? surely iDEN does not still have that much usage. does TDMA even exist anymore?
@tom
I bet a lot of that “Other” is AMPS. In very rural markets there was never any need to turn this off to reclaim frequencies — especially for CDMA carriers. That said don’t underestimate iDEN. Aren’t there like 3 million Boost Mobile subscribers? I’m sure there are still a bunch of (like a few million) hardcore push-to-talk users who have no desire to get rid of their perfectly functional iDEN devices and test the unknown quantity of CDMA PTT.
W-CDMA (includes UTMS) is part of the GSM family. GSM family market share is close to 90% as per 3GSM and other surveys.
There are six major carriers that account for 70% of CDMA susbcribers (two of them are Reliance and Tata telecom in India).
CDMA has lost and is fast loosing market share with more and more carriers including Reliance Teleocm switching to or offering dual services with GSM.
http://www.gsacom.com/gsm_3g/market_update.php4
GSM isn’t a family in the chart, but I suspect 3G networks such as UMTS were counted as GSM. right
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