It's not clear where CDMA is going for 4G -- especially here in the states where pretty much everybody except for Sprint has committed to moving to the GSM-based LTE in the coming years. In the meantime, however. CDMA-based cell networks grew a surprising (to us, anyway) 17% since last year. The bulk of the growth was in the Asia-Pacific region:
CDMA industry continued its strong growth through the first quarter of 2008, increasing its customer base by almost 17% over the past year to 451 million CDMA subscribers worldwide, with CDMA2000 and CDMA2000 1xEV-DO reaching 438 million and 97 million, respectively. The Asia-Pacific (APAC) and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regions claimed the highest year-over-year percentage subscriber growth for CDMA2000, while the Americas and EMEA experienced the highest percentage of subscriber growth for CDMA2000 1xEV-DO. - [Cellular News and cdg]
So 451 million subscribers is pretty darn good, no? And EVDO Rev A is as good as any 3.5G network standard out there (depending on how well AT&T does with their upgrades, anyway). So bask in your moment of expansion, CDMA True Believers.... pay no attention to the three billion GSM subscribers
