The Yankee Group Finds No Single Migration Path for TDMA Carriers in Latin America.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 18, 2003

A new Yankee Group report on TDMA migration among Latin American cellular carriers finds there is no one path that is right for all carriers. The report, "TDMA Carriers in Latin America Have Many Technology Paths for Cellular Migration," says the decision depends on a number of factors ranging from network topology and spectrum assignation to less technical issues, such as parent company preferences and vendor incumbencies.

"As more Latin American wireless operators scale back their capex in 2003, infrastructure vendors are betting on 2.5G and 3G network upgrades to bring in business," says Erica Eppinger, Yankee Group Latin America Strategies research director. "Although new network build is practically non-existent, and even coverage expansion has slowed, operators are still looking to migrate their networks from 2G to next-generation architectures that enhance functionality and services, reduce costs, and increase capacity.

"Unlike cdmaOne and GSM, which have predefined evolutionary paths, TDMA is the only major standard not tied to a single migration path. TDMA networks can migrate to either of the existing technological families--CDMA2000 and GSM/GPRS," says Eppinger.

TDMA is the most widely used standard in Latin America, with roughly 51 million subscribers across 42 networks. To date, only 17 of the 42 networks have announced definite migration paths, with 11 migrating to GSM/GPRS and 6 to CDMA2000. Twenty-five TDMA carriers in Latin America still have not chosen a migration path (as compared to 16 cdmaOne and 8 GSM networks). Therefore, the most attractive market for infrastructure vendors is TDMA carriers that have not chosen their direction.

NOTE TO EDITORS

For interviews, contact Erica Eppinger, [e-mail].

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