CEDAR KNOLLS, N.J.-Wireless Internet users could increase by 300 percent by 2007, with demand on the rise from this year forward, according to the “Wireless Internet Year-End 2002 Review and User Forecast,” from Probe Research.
Probe expects the Asia-Pacific region to make up more than half of all worldwide subscribers by 2007, with China alone accounting for 25 percent of those. The report predicts most subscriber growth through the end of this year will be on CDMA networks, but then GSM/GPRS/EDGE/W-CDMA technologies will take over.
“The high percentage of prepaid customers was limiting the number of potential wireless Internet subscribers,” explained Probe analyst David Chamberlain. “However, billing systems that permit prepaid users to access wireless data offerings and a strong trend toward increasing the percentage of contract customers are rapidly increasing the total addressable market for wireless Internet in Western Europe.”
