CANNES, France-According to a report by EMC, a research and marketing company for the wireless industry, Global System for Mobile communications subscribers reached more than 254 million at the end of 1999. This represents more than 54 percent of the total worldwide cellular subscriber base of 467.15 million.
“GSM grew by 84 percent in 1999, which means that GSM is growing at 1.6 times the world average growth rate,” said Julian Herbert, managing director of EMC.
Herbert noted that despite strong growth from competing technologies such as Code Division Multiple Access, Time Division Multiple Access and others, GSM retains the biggest share of the world’s digital cellular market at more than 66 percent. According to EMC, China is the world’s largest GSM market with more than 37 million subscribers.
Finland remains the most highly penetrated market with about 67 GSM subscriptions per 100 people and penetration near 70 percent.
