In 2006, 472 million new subscribers joined the 3GSM family.

To grasp the enormity of this growth, it can be compared to the number of users of all other mobile standards together - TDMA, PDC, iDEN, Misc. analog, cdmaOne, CDMA2000 1X, CDMA2000 1xEV-DO - a mere 432 million subscribers.

WCDMA grew substantially in 2006. There are now 85 million WCDMA subscribers, which represents a doubling of the subscriber base in just one year.

Ulf Ewaldson, head of Product Area Radio at Ericsson, which includes GSM/WCDMA, says 3GSM is growing fast because people have a natural urge to communicate, and more people than before have the means to do so. "3GSM solutions have proven themselves in the market, the technology has matured, it's everywhere and it works - always. Everyone knows that 3GSM is a safe investment - today and tomorrow," he says.

"Another important factor causing 3GSM to grow so fast is that we are now seeing the effects of scale in several dimensions. For example, terminals are now produced on such a large scale they are becoming cheaper and cheaper. Reduced prices in terminals and lowered total cost of ownership of networks mean that we can attract new markets, such as the high-growth markets, where price is crucial. We often talk about the value of scale and this is a perfect example," Ewaldson says.

Most of the growth in 3GSM is now occurring in countries where many people are only now getting access to a phone. In China and India more than five million subscribers are joining every month in each country. If a country or region has no fixed network structure in place, mobile systems are the most viable option - both for voice and internet communication.

Ewaldson believes 3GSM can continue to grow at this rate. "In the next four to five years we can assume that subscriber growth will increase in much the same way. One reason is the continued strong economic growth in India and China, two countries that together hold a third of the world's population. Today our planet has a population of 6.6 billion people - 2.6 billion have access to a mobile phone. Our estimates are that within four to five years we will be able to reach four billion mobile users."

Ewaldson points out that the future will not only bring further communication between people. "We predict embedded solutions (for example M2M) covering many new segments where 3GSM solutions will increase in the future, creating unlimited possibilities for growth. This is also based on economy of scale."

The statistics from the GSM Association describe the evolution of all mobile standards on a global scale during the period Q3 2005 to Q3 2006.