Report says GSM subscribers worldwide now 2.54B

By Erwin Oliva - INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines -- There are more than two billion people now subscribed to GSM mobile networks, a report released by an association of mobile network suppliers and vendors said.

GSM, short for Global System for Mobile Communications, is now a dominant mobile network standard used worldwide by telecommunications service providers. The standard has evolved, bringing faster and more sophisticated innovations that support not only voice but video and other multimedia applications.

There are now over 2.54 billion GSM subscribers, including those subscribed to 3G networks using the wideband-CDMA standard, as of the second quarter of 2007, according to the recent market research a report released by the Global Mobile Suppliers Association, a group of global GSM technology suppliers, citing data from Informa Telecoms and Media.

The report also noted that there were at least 564 million new GSM subscribers added during the second quarter of this year.

The Asia Pacific region recorded the highest number of GSM subscribers, which includes WCDMA networks at one billion, followed by Western Europe at 500 million.

China and India had a combined growth of 11.2 million additional subscribers on a monthly average during the first half of 2007, the report said.

The same report said that the annual growth of GSM subscribers in the Asia Pacific region is now at 33 percent. The report also said 62 million people in Asia Pacific are subscribed to a WCDMA network, which is a 3G or third generation mobile network.

Meanwhile, the deployment of 3G networks and faster versions of it will drive broadband services in the world. There are now 178 commercial operators of 3G networks in 78 countries using the WCDMA standard, the report said.