The number of global wireless users will increase 49 percent during the next four years to total 1.72 billion by 2007, according to the Yankee Group. Analysts further predict subscriber revenues will reach $584 billion in 2007, compared with $387 billion in 2002, making wireless services similar in value to worldwide crude oil production. “The complete and consistent global analysis that our new forecast provides is increasingly important. It is no longer sufficient merely to benchmark within national markets, and technological islands are disappearing as TDMA and PDC become obsolete,” explained Keith Mallinson, executive vice president of wireless/mobile research at the Yankee Group. “Instead, the GSM family of technologies, including GPRS and W-CDMA, will grow from 70 percent in 2002 to 80 percent market share in 2007, while the CDMA family with cdmaOne and cdma2000 will grow from 13 percent to 16 percent in the period.”
Verizon Wireless said it will offer customers with Get It Now-enabled phones enhanced nationwide directory information through Verizon SuperPages. Verizon Wireless said the service will allow customers to search more than 16 million yellow page listings and a national white pages database by name, phone number or business type and download maps and driving directions. The SuperPages application download is free with subscription rates beginning at $1.25 for weekly access, $2.50 for monthly access or $20 for yearly access.
Dell Computer Corp. signed a deal with T-Mobile USA Inc. providing Dell notebook computer customers with 2,000 free minutes of access to T-Mobile USA’s HotSpot service within the first 30 days after activation when they sign up for a new qualifying Hotspot service plan. “Dell’s promotion of T-Mobile HotSpot clearly demonstrates how quickly Wi-Fi is becoming a technology mainstay for wireless broadband connectivity in places where people already go,” said Joe Sims, vice president and general manager of T-Mobile HotSpot.
