GSM growth in Americas: 54%

GSM increased its digital cellular subscriber base in the Americas by 54% in 2002, the largest percentage gain of any wireless technology in the region. In Latin America, GSM increased its subscriber base by 90% in 2002, largely in the second half of the year when several new GSM networks were commercially launched. Globally, GSM added over 165 million new customers in 2002 - adding more new customers than the total subscriber base of any other mobile wireless technology in the world.

Based on recent subscriber data reported by EMC, GSM has 8.5 million subscribers in Latin America, a 90% growth rate in just one year, and 17.6 million subscribers in the United States and Canada, a 41% growth rate in 2002.

On a global basis, GSM/GPRS data services are commercially available from 147 operators in 58 countries according to EMC, and subscribers to GPRS grew by 47% in the fourth quarter of 2002. The GSM family of wireless service platforms - GSM, GPRS, EDGE, and WCDMA - represents about 72% of the world's digital wireless customers today. There are 825 million GSM customers globally on 640 networks (469 operators) in 175 countries, making GSM the technology of choice for the world.