Record 423 Million New Cellular Subscribers In 2005

Strategy Analytics: Wireless Network Strategies service, the cellular industry is on course for 2.5 billion subscribers by the end of 2006, and 3.5 billion by the end of 2010. Also predicts the industry will generate $800 Billion in service revenues by the end of the decade.

There were two key trends in the global wireless market in 2005. First, emerging markets contributed phenomenal levels of subscriber growth. In particular, Russia, India and Indonesia saw major growth in new users in 2005, up 40-50 percent over 2004 levels. African nations, including Nigeria and Algeria, are waiting in the wings to become leading growth markets in 2006, and will help drive the worldwide cellular subscriber count to 2.5 billion before the end of the year. The second key trend was the coming of age of the high-speed 3G market.

W-CDMA user numbers jumped from 16 million to 49 million during 2005, with CDMA2000 1x EV-DO users up from 12 million to 26 million. Europe finally joined Japan in delivering meaningful W-CDMA numbers, while the USA also made leaps in EV-DO. We expect both of these technologies will double their subscriber counts in 2005.

Top 5 Markets for New Subscribers (2005)		Top 5 Markets for W-CDMA & CDMA2000 1x EV-DO Users (end 2005)
China	58.0m	Japan	28.2m
Russia	52.6m	Korea	12.5m
India	29.5m	Italy	9.4m
USA	27.0m	UK	6.0m
Indonesia	19.9m	USA	4.5m
Source: Strategy Analytics

Worldwide Cellular User Forecasts 2005-2019 Publ 20060119