CDMA Sees Worldwide Growth

By WC Staff
last updated

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

WC Staff
WC Staff
6 Comments
  • Who are you, and what have you done with Dieter?
  • What? I can't say something nice?
  • Too bad EVDO doesn't allow concurrent voice/data. Unless of course REV A added it.
  • Of course CDMA is growing and will continue to grow. Just because CDMAx1 has peaked does not mean code division multiple access technology is dead or dying.. WCDMA (wide band code division multiple access) will be the new standard for GSM. If anything TDMA which is the current GSM standard is what is dying. Also I have to get this out in the open GSM IS NOT A TECHNOLOGY IT IS A STANDARD (global systems for mobile communications) that happens to currently use TDMA. Now I know many of you are thinking no TDMA is that stuff we had before GSM. Well its still TDMA but with the added fixes and enhancements that are supposed to be but not always used under the GSM standard. Have you ever noticed that AT&T?s new HSDPA uses WCDMA. I have a funny feeling when the HSDPA network gets large enough AT&T will move its voice services to that network. I am not sure but I will bet anything that WCDMA will be able to roam on CDMA networks. When all the smoke is cleared 10 years from now or so we will all be using a code division multiple access technology in some way and most likely in the form of WCDMA.
    Also read this http://www.arcx.com/sites/CDMAvsTDMA.htm
  • Of course CDMA is growing and will continue to grow. Just because CDMAx1 has peaked does not mean code division multiple access technology is dead or dying.. WCDMA (wide band code division multiple access) will be the new standard for GSM. If anything TDMA which is the current GSM standard is what is dying. Also I have to get this out in the open GSM IS NOT A TECHNOLOGY IT IS A STANDARD (global systems for mobile communications) that happens to currently use TDMA. Now I know many of you are thinking no TDMA is that stuff we had before GSM. Well its still TDMA but with the added fixes and enhancements that are supposed to be but not always used under the GSM standard. Have you ever noticed that AT&T?s new HSDPA uses WCDMA. [COLOR="Red"> I have a funny feeling when the HSDPA network gets large enough AT&T will move its voice services to that network.[/COLOR] I am not sure but I will bet anything that WCDMA will be able to roam on CDMA networks. When all the smoke is cleared 10 years from now or so we will all be using a code division multiple access technology in some way and most likely in the form of WCDMA.
    Also read this http://www.arcx.com/sites/CDMAvsTDMA.htm
    Isn't that the reason why simultaneous voice and data are only achieved via AT&T 3G network and not with EDGE...I could be wrong? How will this voice and data be achieved if all voice is eventially moved to WCDMA?
  • What's happening here?