NEW YORK—Global growth of total active wireless subscribers slowed to 17 percent in 2005 from 35 percent in 2004, according to Fitch Ratings’ “Global Wireless Review.”
The firm said it expects the trend of slowing subscriber growth to continue until wireless data applications provide a potential boost.
Latin America showed the largest percentage of growth in 2005, increasing 33 percent last year compared with 17 percent in the Asia-Pacific region, 15 percent in the United States and Canada and 9 percent in Europe, according to the report. However, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for about half of all total subscriber additions last year, and China alone accounted for 27 percent of total aggregate subscriber additions, said the report.
In addition, prepaid customer additions continue to outpace postpaid additions and represented about 56 percent of total subscribers last year, up from 52 percent in 2004. Fitch said it expects prepaid strength to continue especially in countries such as Mexico, Indonesia and China.
