India's CDMA2000 Subscriber base surpasses 50 million Economic Times, New Delhi, August 26, 2007: The CDMA Development Group (CDG) on Sunday announced that India's CDMA2000 subscriber base has surpassed 50 million fixed and mobile device users. Subscriber growth reached this milestone only four years after the technology's introduction to the market, while it it took GSM more than ten years to reach the same number, the apex CDMA body said. The CDG attributes this rapid growth in the region to the economic delivery of differentiated value-added services, network expansion into the rural areas of India and the growing availability of very low end (VLE) devices. "India is an important showcase that demonstrates CDMA2000's flexibility, performance and efficiency," said James Person, chief operating officer of the CDG. "CDMA2000 is equally adept in serving a variety of telecommunications scenarios most economically; from urban centers to rural areas, from fixed to mobile deployments, from telephone to television services, and from ultra low-end (pre-paid) to high-end (post-paid) devices. As a result, CDMA2000 is quickly becoming the technology of choice for emerging markets." "With up to 2.01 million net subscriber additions in June 2007, CDMA2000's 5 per cent growth rate exceeded that of GSM, at 4.1 per cent. Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices, who are among the top 20 fastest-growing operators in the world, are investing in the CDMA2000 business to further accelerate this growth rate. CDMA2000 devices have witnessed 50 per cent year-over-year growth since 2003, with more OEMs participating than with GSM," said B V Raman, Country Head, CDG India. The rapid expansion of the CDMA2000 networks into the rural areas of India to deliver state-of-the-art telephone and broadband Internet access has been a primary factor in reaching the 50 million subscriber milestone. Back