The CDMA Development Group (CDG) today announced that the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region once again leads the global CDMA ecosystem in terms of subscribers, revenue and service creation. As APAC operators continue to develop and enhance their core 3G CDMA networks, CDMA2000 subscribership in the region remains the largest in the world and operators in the region are seeing some of the highest wireless data revenues in the industry.

“The CDG is committed to helping Asian 3G CDMA operators realize the most benefits from their core networks,” said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. “When 3G licensing auctions occur in China and India next year, more people than ever will be able to take advantage of CDMA2000 voice and wireless broadband services.”

APAC accounts for 53% of the global CDMA market, which reached 475 million users at the end of Q3 2008. Over the past year, the region added more than 47.2 million new subscribers for CDMA2000. Emerging markets and dynamic new services for developed markets are key drivers behind CDMA’s strong growth, which includes more the 5 million new customers in Indonesia over the past 6 months. CDMA2000 1xEV-DO subscribers grew by over 4 million during the year, a number that is expected to increase exponentially as operators in the region deploy more EV-DO Revision A (Rev. A) networks. Smart Telecom and PCCW recently launched Rev. A services in Indonesia and Hong Kong, respectively.

Not only does APAC lead the world in CDMA subscribership, operators in the region also realize some of the highest average revenue per user (ARPU) in the world, particularly for 3G CDMA wireless data ARPU. In Japan, KDDI’s wireless data ARPU continually exceeds US$20. In Korea, LG Telecom is seeing increased data ARPU since launching its popular flat-rate OZ (Open Zone) mobile broadband service on its EV-DO Rev. A network. The operator has added more than 400,000 OZ customers since launching the service in April 2008, and by the end of the year will add more than 10 OZ-enabled handsets to the market.

In October 2008, China Telecom launched a CDMA2000 network under the service banner ‘Surfing,’ which put the power of the Internet in the hands of millions of customers. The operator aims to have 100 million users by the end of 2009 and already supports a wide array of CDMA2000 devices. Furthermore, the world’s largest wireline operator plans to begin offering EV-DO wireless broadband in the first half of 2009.

APAC has also demonstrated leadership with successful proof-of-concept trials in the CDG’s Open Market Handset (OMH) program. The OMH program is part of the CDG’s overall Global Handset Requirements for CDMA (GHRC) initiative, which specifies a common set of requirements based on standards to procure CDMA2000 devices in an open-device and open-application environment. The ultimate goal is to make handsets generic devices that can be sold on the “open market” and used in multiple operator networks. Reliance Communications, TATA Indicom, Bakrie Telecom, Mobile-8 Telecom, Telkom Flexi, Indosat, CityCell and CAT Telecom announced successful trial conclusions in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Thailand, respectively.

Source:cellular-news