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GSM Mobile Service Growth in the Americas

Based on data provided by Informa Telecoms & Media, 3G Americas reported that the Latin America and Caribbean region had over 447 million total GSM-HSPA subscriptions as of third quarter of 2009.

There were 119 GSM operators serving every country in the region, with 73 million new GSM-HSPA subscriptions added in the year ending September 2009. The uptake of UMTS-HSPA mobile broadband technology is evidenced by its growth -- from fewer than 28,000 subscriptions in September 2007, up to 2.5 million by September 2008, and totaling nearly 12 million in September 2009 in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Erasmo Rojas, Director of Latin America and the Caribbean for 3G Americas, says "The number of UMTS-HSPA subscriptions in Latin America grew by 9.4 million in 12 months -- an amazing 380 percent annual growth rate. Clearly, a strong HSPA footprint exists in the region today with 50 commercial networks in 23 countries."

Eva Benguigui, Senior Research Analyst at Informa, added "Mobile Broadband connectivity has been the key service to propel the growth of UMTS-HSPA technology in the Latin America and Caribbean region due to the low household penetration of fixed broadband in most of the countries in the region."

In all of the Western Hemisphere, a total of 577 million GSM-HSPA subscriptions were reported by Informa as of third quarter of 2009, representing a 73 percent market share. There were 18.4 million new subscriptions added to the GSM family of technologies in the third quarter of 2009, and 81 million in the year ending September 2009, for a 16 percent annual growth.

Globally, there were 317 UMTS-HSPA commercial networks reported, 300 of which used HSPA technology and served customers in 128 countries. UMTS-HSPA currently boasts nearly 414 million global 3G subscriptions representing more than 9 percent of the world's total mobile wireless subscriptions.

From the 217 million HSPA subscriptions expected worldwide by year-end 2009, Informa forecasts that this number will rise to 1.2 billion in 2013 and exceed 2 billion shortly after year-end 2014.

As of September 2009, the GSM family of technologies reached nearly 4 billion subscriptions worldwide and 89.5 percent share of market with service on 860 networks in 220 countries.

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