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GSM outpacing CDMA in US
Standards war heating up

By Ben Charny

Published: Friday 10 October 2003

A cellphone technology that dominates Europe is now the fastest-growing standard in North America, according to a trade group.

Chris Pearson, executive vice president of mobile trade organisation 3G Americas, on Wednesday said North American use of the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard increased 57 per cent from June 2002 to June 2003. That's three times faster than the growth of Qualcomm's Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), which has dominated the North American market. He cited new cellphone market data from EMC, which publishes the EMC World Cellular Database.

The news is troubling for Qualcomm, Pearson said, because GSM is apparently beginning to challenge CDMA's stranglehold on the North American cellphone market. However, he conceded that GSM has a long way to go, because there are 71 million North American CDMA phones versus GSM's 22 million.

"In the US, especially, CDMA [mobile providers] were the leaders as far as number of subscribers, but that's changing," he said.

Representatives from the CDMA Development Group, a CDMA trade organisation, did not immediately comment. Two Qualcomm representatives did not return phone calls seeking comment.

The number of North American GSM subscribers is expected to grow to at least 55 million once Cingular Wireless, AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile USA finish converting their subscribers to GSM.

Ben Charny writes for CNET News.com