LAS VEGAS-- More than 70 wireless industry leaders involved in the development, implementation and operation of the CDMA2000 third generation (3G) wireless platform today concluded the fifth annual CDMA Operators’ Summit (COS) where they discussed the technology’s evolution path and developed strategies to meet the growing international demand for 3G services. The summit included the largest CDMA2000 operators from China, Japan, South Korea, North America, Latin America, New Zealand, Africa and India, as well as key industry partners, such as Motorola, Nokia, Nortel, and QUALCOMM.

CDMA2000 operators offer a broad range of wireless applications, including voice and data communications, multimedia messaging, entertainment and broadband Internet access. According to the CDMA Development Group (CDG), CDMA2000 controls 80 percent of the global market share for 3G subscribers, with 169 operators in 75 countries serving more than 275 million subscribers across all six continents. About 8.5 million new users subscribe to 3G services every month, and as a result CDMA2000 is expected to reach 500 million subscribers by the end of 2010. With 1,460 devices from more than 81 suppliers, CDMA2000 already offers a greater selection of competitively priced devices from more suppliers than any other technology available today.

Topics discussed at the meeting included the CDMA2000 technology evolution path, infrastructure and advocacy issues, international roaming and device standards, as well as growing the CDMA2000 community. In addition, the delegates shared best practices, highlighted respective successes, and pledged their continued support of CDMA2000.

“Innovation is the common bond that all CDMA2000 operators share,” said Tim Donahue, executive chairman for Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) and host of the CDMA Operators’ Summit. “Sprint has been a leader in the CDMA community – we have the most international roaming agreements; our CDMA2000 1xEV-DO network covers more than 160 million people and is the largest mobile broadband network in the U.S. We are in the process of rolling out the first EV-DO Revision A network in the country and will leverage this technology to provide our customers with high performance push-to-talk, multi-user video conferencing, real-time gaming, and large file uploads.”

"KDDI is very pleased with the fruitful results of the CDMA Operators Summit," said Dr. Yutaka Yasuda, vice president and general manager, Corporate Technology Sector, KDDI. "KDDI is going to launch our EV-DO Revision A network in December. With the advantage of CDMA technology, we surely believe KDDI can offer our customers innovative multimedia solutions at attractive price points."

“We take great pride in our CDMA network, and consider it one of our company’s strongest assets. We’ll continue to enhance and expand that network to meet the needs of our consumer and enterprise customers today, tomorrow and well into the future,” said Ed Salas, vice president, network planning at Verizon Wireless. “Verizon Wireless was pleased to participate in the Summit and to share our ideas about the evolution and growth of CDMA technology.”

“As the sole CDMA carrier in Mexico, with an EV-DO network in 22 cities as well as nationwide 1x 2000 coverage, we are now prepared to offer data roaming to CDMA users from around the globe, and especially the NAFTA region,” said Gustavo Guzman Sepulveda, CEO of Iusacell and head of the Iusacell-Unefon integration team.

“Tata Teleservices is playing a leading role in the development of the telecom infrastructure in India by offering integrated telecommunication services and is all set to redefine the existing benchmarks of the mobile service category in India,” said Mr. Greg Young, chief technology officer, Tata Teleservices. “India holds tremendous market potential for wireless services and CDMA2000 is growing rapidly in India. Tata Teleservices will continue to work with our CDMA industry peers to define requirements, drive industry harmonization and further continue the evolution of CDMA2000 to meet customer demands and enhance the performance and efficiencies of our network.”

“China Unicom and SK Telecom have decided to implement a joint procurement of CDMA handsets,” said Li Zhengmao, Vice President, China Unicom. “This will clearly motivate the industry to be more cost effective.”

“Although CDMA2000 is the leading 3G technology in the world, in today’s competitive market we must constantly strengthen its value proposition,” remarked Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. “We have built new programs to strengthen the ecosystem and incorporated the very latest technologies into our roadmap to allow operators to further evolve the performance of their networks while retaining existing economies of scope and scale.”

Those interested in learning more about the CDMA2000 industry, its technology, and how leading operators are benefiting from offering 3G services should plan to attend a one-hour webcast presented by the CDG, entitled “Future of the CDMA2000 Industry: Operators' Insight.” The web cast takes place on Friday, Oct. 20, 2006, at 11:30 a.m. Eastern. It will feature an overview of the CDMA2000 roadmap and provide insights by China Unicom, Sprint Nextel, and Tata Teleservices into their success with offering CDMA2000 services. To register for the “live” webcast, go to http://www.cdg.org/news/events/061020_webcast/index.asp.