GSM increases penetration

According to 3G Americas, 81% of all mobile users worldwide are using GSM technology, be it GSM or GPRS, or EDGE or UMTS or HSDPA. That brings the number of GSM users to about 1.75bn, up circa 400m in past twelve months. It is a big increase from the 60%-65% ten years ago. Such a mass market is interesting both for the operator and the customer. The operator can drive its costs down, access a wider range of products, while the user can call from almost everywhere (if roaming agreements are in place) and benefit from mass handset production (including low-cost handset for emerging countries initiative).

Currently, there are 196 mobile operators that have deployed or committed to UMTS worldwide, with some 250 UMTS devices available in the market; there are 82 operators deploying or committed to HSDPA; there are 212 commitments to EDGE in 108 countries, with a total of about 200 EDGE devices offered.