Press Releases 2003
GSM Celebrates 200 Country Milestone
Djibouti becomes 200th country to adopt GSM as
Djibouti Telecom joins GSMA
London,
UK:
02nd September 2003: The
GSM community celebrated another milestone in August
as membership of the GSM Association (GSMA) broke through
the 200-country barrier.
The
Association – the global trade organisation
for GSM operators – now numbers some 592 operator
members in 203 countries with more than 909 million
customers worldwide.
New countries joining the GSM community
recently include the Bahamas, Kiribati, Comoros,
Guatemala, Dijbouti
(the 200th country), and Timor Leste (the 201st),
Honduras (202) and Guyana (203). 99.7% of the world’s
population lives in countries that have selected
GSM.
Welcoming the news, CEO and Member
of the GSMA Board, Rob Conway described GSM as the
world’s biggest
commercial co-operative and a mobile telephony eco-system.
"No one country, and no one company owns GSM," he
said. "It is an open standard that is providing
service to approaching one billion people globally
and employment and opportunity to millions.
"The strength of the GSM eco-system
lies in the removal of barriers to market, the economies
of scale for manufacturers, the return for investors,
the opportunities for application developers, the
ability
to evolve into 3rd Generation (3GSM) mobile services
, and the sheer reach and reliability of the service
provided to users.
"
It is a phenomenal package, unrivalled by any
technology anywhere in the world," he concluded.
About GSM:
With the blurring of traditional borders, consumers are demanding a truly global
roaming service. Today, GSM is the global standard of choice for mobile phone
services with almost one billion users, or more than 72 per cent of the world’s
mobile phone subscribers, connected to GSM networks. Last year alone, 165 million
new customers opted for GSM networks as emerging markets chose to invest in
the flexible and affordable technology – that’s more additions
in one year than the nearest competing technology has in total.
About the GSM Association:
The GSM Association (GSMA) is the global trade association
that exists to promote, protect and enhance the interests
of GSM mobile operators throughout the world. At the
end of August 2003, it consisted of more than 592 second
and third generation mobile operators and 133 manufacturers
and suppliers. The Association's members currently
provide mobile services to 909 million customers across
203 countries and regions around the world. The GSMA
aims to accelerate the implementation of collectively
identified, commercially prioritised operator requirements
and to take leadership in representing the global GSM
mobile operator community with one voice on a wide
variety of issues nationally, regionally and globally.
The GSM family of wireless communications platforms,
including GSM, GPRS (General Packet Radio Services),
EDGE (Enhanced Data for GSM Evolution) and 3GSM (W
CDMA) account for 72 percent of the total digital
wireless market today. The GSM Association is a unique
organisation, with truly global reach, offering a
full range of business, technical and public policy
services to its members. For more information, visit
the website at www.gsmworld.com.
The GSM
Association's Board comprises
the following operator companies and multinational
groups: AT&T
Wireless Group; China Mobile; China Unicom; Hutchison
Group; KT ICOM; Maxis Mobile; mmO2 Group; NTT DoCoMo,
Inc.; Orange Group; Orascom Telecom Group; SFR Cegetel;
SingTel Group; SUNDAY Communications Ltd; Taiwan
Cellular; Telefónica Móviles Group;
Telenor Mobile Group; TeliaSonera Group; TIM (Telecom
Italia Mobile) Group; T-Mobile Group; Turkcell and
the Vodafone Group. The Board also includes the GSMA's
CEO and Chairman of the Executive Management Committee.
Contact Information:
CompanyCare Communications
Richard Fogg
Tel: +44 (0)118 939 5900
Fax: +44 (0)118 959 9595
Email: richard@companycare.com
or
Ian Volans
Communications Manager
GSM Association
Tel: +44 207 518 0545
Fax: +44 207 518 0531
Email: ivolans@gsm.org
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