BELLEVUE, Wash.-GSM subscribers more than doubled in the Western Hemisphere during 2004, according to 3G Americas.
In the Americas from December 2003 to December 2004, GSM added more than 59 million subscribers. Worldwide, 284 million new customers signed up to GSM networks, and total GSM subscribers reached 1.275 billion.
During the fourth quarter, GSM gained 23 million subscribers in the Americas region.
EDGE and UMTS technologies also showed gains.
“EDGE and UMTS growth continues throughout the world. EDGE provides enterprise customers a great combination of coverage, speed, devices and low latency,” stated Chris Pearson, president of 3G Americas.
“UMTS is gaining roughly 2 million customers per month with an expected 20 million users at the end of February, and this will only continue to substantially increase with more than 128 operators in various stages of deployment of their UMTS networks, nearly half of whom have commercially launched,” according to Pearson.