GSA says number of commercial EDGE networks surges to 116
A new survey of 3G deployments worldwide by GSA – the Global mobile Suppliers Association, confirms that 116 GSM/EDGE networks have launched commercial services in 70 countries, compared with 35 networks launched just 12 months earlier.
The commercial networks breakdown by region is: Americas and Caribbean 39, Asia 21, Europe 45, Middle East and Africa 11. GSA also confirms that 169 operators in 91 countries have committed to EDGE deployments, which represents a clear majority over 58%, of the world's 290 commercial GSM/GPRS operators.
GSA also states that 87 3G/WCDMA networks in 39 countries are in commercial service, more than 30% up compared to 6 months previously. A further 6 networks are at pre-commercial phase. A total of 146 WCDMA licenses in the IMT - 2000 band have been awarded worldwide in 52 countries. The accelerating pace of 3G rollout means that almost two-thirds of these operators are now delivering commercial 3G mobile multimedia services using WCDMA. There were 32.2 million 3G/WCDMA subscribers at August 31, 2005, with growth of 2 million per month.
The strong link between EDGE and WCDMA, which are complementary radio access technologies, is clear from the number of operators deploying combined networks for the best user experience of 3G services. The survey identified 55 operators deploying both EDGE and WCDMA, with 23 combined networks now in commercial service.
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