Radius-ED is a member of the GSM Association, a global trade association serving more than 2 billion customers - over 80% of the world's mobile phone users. We share the GSMA's primary goal of ensuring mobile phones and wireless services work globally and are easily accessible, enhancing their value to individual customers and national economies, while creating new business opportunities for operators and their suppliers.
Radius-ED Gains Admission into the GSM Association
Radius-ED recently gained admittance into the illustrious GSM Association (GSMA), thus, joining some 690 GSM mobile phone operators across 213 countries.
The primary goals of the GSMA are to ensure mobile phones and wireless services work globally and are easily accessible, enhancing their value to individual customers and national economies, while creating new business opportunities for operators and their suppliers.
“Radius-ED is proud to be an Associate Member. We have long supported the goals of the GSMA and the technology and products we develop are in keeping with the association’s aim of connecting people around the world,” said Ben Chong, Chief Technology Officer of Radius-ED.
GSM's success can be attributed to an original vision of a cross border digital communications system, now used in almost every country of the world today. This vision enabled the development of a global eco-system delivering vast economies of scale, massive product and service choice and global roaming, among other benefits for users.
Today, the 690 mobile networks provide GSM services to some 2 billion GSM mobile phone subscribers – representing 82.4% of all global mobile connections.
"This is the fastest growth of technology ever witnessed," said Craig Ehrlich, Chairman of the GSMA. "While it took just 12 years for the industry to reach the first billion connections, the second billion has been achieved in just two and a half years boosted by the phenomenal take up of mobile in emerging markets such as China, India, Africa and Latin America, which accounted for 82% of the second billion subscribers."
China is the largest single GSM market in the world today, with more than 370 million users, followed by Russia with 145 million, India with 83 million and the USA with 78 million users*. In India, mobile has even become the fastest selling consumer product – pushing bicycles to the number two spot.
"With the achievement of the second billion milestone, GSM has become the first communications technology to have more users in the developing world than the developed world," said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association. "What this means is that mobile phones are 'bridging the digital divide' at an astonishing rate with relevant, affordable solutions that help families stay in touch, businesses to grow and economies to develop."
The GSMA has launched a number of initiatives to help people in the developing world gain access to mobile communications. As part of its vision to 'Connect the Unconnected', the GSMA's Emerging Market Handset initiative has delivered a first sub USD30 low cost mobile phone, and engaged mobile manufacturers to focus on more affordable mobile communications solutions that would prove attractive to a significant proportion of the world's unconnected people.
