A new survey by GSA – the Global mobile Suppliers Association, confirms 287 mobile network operators in 142 countries have committed to deploying EDGE – Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution. This compares to 204 commitments one year ago, representing over 40% growth. There are 111 EDGE network commitments in Europe, followed by the Americas/Caribbean (84), Middle East/Africa (50), and APAC (42). A total of 223 networks, i.e. over three quarters of deployments, have launched commercial services. This compares with 151 commercial networks in May 2006, i.e. almost 50% increase. Commercial EDGE-enabled services are now available in 113 countries in the Americas (59 networks), Asia Pacific (31 networks), Europe (97 networks) and the Middle East and Africa (36 networks). The footprint of GSM/EDGE-enabled services extended to 25 more countries in the last 12 months

EDGE and 3G/WCDMA are complementary technologies. The GSA survey shows that 116 3G/WCDMA operators have deployed, or are currently deploying, combined WCDMA-EDGE networks for lower capital expense, optimum flexibility and efficiencies, with 80 WCDMA-EDGE networks in commercial service. This trend continues with High Speed Packet Access - HSPA. The majority of WCDMA operators evolving to HSPA also use EDGE for service continuity and the best user experience of mobile broadband services.

Related GSA surveys confirm over 500 EDGE-capable user devices launched in the market. A growing number of WCDMA devices also incorporate EDGE capabilities, and the majority of HSDPA devices, estimated in the range 70-80%, also support EDGE. The growing trend is for products supporting a combination of tri-band WCDMA/HSDPA (850/1900/2100 MHz) and quad band GSM/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz).
www.gsacom.com