Two new surveys by GSA - the Global mobile Suppliers Association, underline the fundamental role of GSM/EDGE in the global market for 3G mobile services delivery. The EDGE Operators Worldwide survey confirms that 96 GSM/EDGE networks, triple the number of 12 months ago, are delivering commercial EDGE-enabled services today in 60 countries. The breakdown is 38 commercial networks in 26 countries in Europe, 17 in Asia, 32 in 18 countries/territories in the Americas, with the remaining 9 live networks in 7 countries in Africa and the Middle East.

The survey identifies a total of 153 network operators in 85 countries committed to the EDGE upgrade (compared to 106 networks in 64 countries 12 months ago). The regional split is 60 EDGE network deployments in the Americas, 54 in Europe, 26 in Asia, and 13 in the Middle East and Africa. Many more networks are expected to launch EDGE-enabled commercial services in the coming months.

The GSM/EDGE Devices survey by GSA confirms 143 GSM/EDGE-enabled devices now launched in the market, from 23 suppliers. More than 110 GSM/EDGE-enabled devices have been launched in the past 12 months.

The range of combined WCDMA/EDGE devices continues to expand and support the growing number of operators offering 3G services on combined EDGE/WCDMA networks. The large choice and availability of EDGE-enabled user devices serves to underline the maturity of WCDMA and EDGE technologies, which are complementary.

GSA also confirms that 48 operators are now operating or deploying combined EDGE-WCDMA networks, ensuring lower capital expense, optimum flexibility and efficiencies for the best user experience of enhanced mobile multimedia services.