As wireless technology and services became more pervasive around the world over the course of the 1990s, one thing immediately became clear: the uniqueness of the major markets around the world. SMS in Europe, i-mode in Japan and Blackberry in North America all point to the diversity of consumer acceptance. Likewise the problems facing these markets are unique as well. While Scandinavian and Japanese carriers worry about market saturation, the USA wrestles with its spectrum allocation confusion and intense competition. While European carriers worry about getting out of their enormous debts due to auctions, carriers in South America worry about the technology evolution of their TDMA networks. In this chapter we will cover the salient features of the major global wireless markets – the USA, China, Japan, South Korea, South America and Europe.

Figure 3.1 and Table 3.1 show the penetration of wireless telephones and wireless data, respectively, across different regions of the world.

USA

During the past few years, the US wireless market has continued its substantial growth: from about 86 million subscribers at the end of 1999, the total number of subscribers had increased to 137 million by February 2003. Carriers are all upgrading their networks to gain more capacity and efficiency for their voice networks as well as to introduce high-bandwidth data capabilities. The year 2001 saw experimentation with wireless applications and the development of various relationships amongst the players in the wireless value chain.