COSTA MESA, Calif., May 27, 2004 (PRIMEZONE) -- The CDMA Development Group (CDG) (www.cdg.org) reported today that CDMA2000(r) operators showed strong financial performance in 1Q 2004 resulting from the success of their advanced 3G service. KDDI (Japan), SK Telecom (Korea), VIVO (Brazil), Verizon Wireless and Sprint (United States) all reported robust subscriber growth and a significant boost in revenues.
"We see a definite trend in the positive returns that CDMA2000 services have brought to carriers over the past year," said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. "As data services such as MMS, games and video are more widely adopted, CDMA2000 carriers will continue to get a healthy return on their investments. The experiences of CDMA2000 carriers show the true potential of 3G services."
KDDI doubled its net profit from last year mainly due to a strong increase in mobile subscribers: the subscriber base expanded by nearly 21 percent to reach 17 million, including 13.5 million CDMA2000 users. Additionally, data ARPU grew by over 27 percent in the past year. Nearly 90 percent of KDDI CDMA2000 subscribers use data.
SK Telecom beat analysts' profit expectations and attributed the result to healthy mobile Internet growth. Revenues from data services increased 48 percent over the past year, while data ARPU doubled, accounting for 18 percent of total ARPU.
VIVO, the largest wireless carrier in Latin America, has seen significant uptake of data since the launch of CDMA2000 in December 2001. Last quarter, the carrier reported that data revenue contributed 4.7 percent of total revenue, a 141 percent increase from 1Q 2003. Subscribers who use data services spend more than 10 percent of their bill on data. The carrier offers 12 data-capable handsets today and expects the number to reach 25 by year-end.
Verizon Wireless added more than 1.4 million subscribers in 1Q 2004, the highest quarterly net add increase for the carrier to date. 63 percent of the subscriber base owns a CDMA2000-enabled handset. Data services contributed 3.6 percent to total revenues and the carrier handled 19 million Get It Now! downloads and 21 million MMS transmissions.
Sprint ended 1Q 2004 with 4.2 million Sprint PCS Vision data subscribers, an increase of nearly 1 million from the previous quarter. Sprint customers purchased more than 20 million ringers and screen savers and more than 5 million games in 2003. In the first four months of 2004, more than 3.5 million games were purchased, and the number is expected to accelerate with the promise of more innovations to come in the form of 3D games. More than 100 million pictures and videos were sent over the network from the launch of Sprint PCS Vision through March 2004. Data produced over $175 million in revenue, or more than $700 million annualized in first quarter 2004, and customers subscribing to a Sprint PCS Vision plan generated data ARPU of $11, up from $7 in first quarter 2003.
CDMA2000 leads in 3G deployments with 81 carriers in 40 countries on six continents. An additional 22 CDMA2000 networks with be launched in 2004. Today, 47 manufacturers provide more than 520 CDMA2000 handsets, including 58 1xEV-DO models.
More information on CDMA2000 is available on the CDG Web site at www.cdg.org.
About the CDG
The CDMA Development Group is a trade association formed to foster the worldwide development, implementation and use of CDMA technologies. The more than 100 member companies of the CDG include many of the world's largest wireless carriers and equipment manufacturers. The primary activities of the CDG include development of CDMA features and services, public relations, education and seminars, regulatory affairs and international support. Currently, there are more than 500 individuals working within various CDG subcommittees on CDMA-related matters. For more information about the CDG, contact the CDG News Bureau at +1-714-540-1030, or visit the CDG Web site at www.cdg.org.