COSTA MESA, Calif.-The number of global CDMA subscribers grew by 58 percent during the past year to 90 million customers worldwide, according to the CDMA Development Group.
The Asia Pacific continued as the largest CDMA market with nearly 40 million users, representing a 25- percent increase from the previous year. Latin America showed the largest percentage increase, rising more than 144 percent to 15.9 million users. North American CDMA operators added more than 15.3 million subscribers, bringing the total base to 33.8 million.
“We expect to see strong continued growth for CDMA worldwide reaching the 100 million landmark within the next several months,” said Perry La Forge, executive director of the CDG. “China Unicom’s deployment, scheduled for the fourth quarter, will contribute to this increase in subscribers.”
LaForge also noted the deployment of cdma2000 services was on schedule, with SK Telecom launching the first commercial service last year and LG Telecom launching service in April. Several operators in North America, Latin America, Asia and Australia also plan to launch services by the end of this year.
