Informa Telecoms and Media has claimed that 3G networks have “come of age”… “The technology may not have been mature from day one but 3G subscriber growth has outperformed that of both first generation analogue and second generation digital networks in the four years since NTT DoCoMo launched the world’s first 3G network in Japan.”
Here’s their estimate for 3G subscriptions, given as millions of subscribers:
–2005…..70.57
–2006…..134.85
–2007…..230.66
–2008…..379.24
–2009…..575.61
–2010…..797.27
Unsurprisingly, Asia will see the first commercial 3.5G networks, with South Korea’s KTF planning to roll out HSDPA in 17 major metropolitan areas by the end of the year, expanding to 45 by June 2006. SK Telecom is planning to have the services available by next April and “both operators aim to sign up about 500,000
WCDMA/HSDPA subscribers during 2006. As of 3Q05, SKT had a total of 4,400 WCDMA (Rel. 4) subs and KTF just 300.”
The third Korean operator — LG Telecom — is expected to run a 1xEV-DO Revision A trial from Lucent in the second quarter of next year…
Related stories:
–How Far Ahead Is Japan?
–3G Against Digital Divide
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