CDMA2000 Boosts Presence in Central Asia to Address Wireless Telecom Expansion

October 18, 2006 // Published as a news service by IHS

CDMA2000 is showing strong growth across Central Asia, according to the CDMA Development Group (CDG). Up to 23 CDMA2000 operators are offering voice and broadband data access to countries such as Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.

These operators have been able to sustain average revenue per user (ARPU) that is above the industry average, while providing areas that have limited purchasing power with affordable voice and value added data services, according to CDG.

The region, comprised of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, represents a population of more than 236 million.

CDMA2000 networks are serving most of the people living in this region where landline services are not easily available and voice usage is moderately high, according to CDG.

"The subscriber growth in Pakistan has been phenomenal, where the total CDMA2000 wireless local loop (WLL) subscriber base has exceeded 1.2 million subscribers in just the last year," said Khalid Khan, chairman of the Pakistan CDMA Forum. "With the expected launch of fully mobile CDMA2000 networks early next year, we expect more than 10 million people in Pakistan will be using advanced CDMA2000 services by 2010."

Source: CDMA Development Group (CDG).